Dual Swordsmen-Link Start!
by Last Step
Summary: Kazuto and his twin brother Shin were beta testers of the latest VRMMO, Sword Art Online. But when the real game launched, they found themselves in the middle of a death game. Join Kirito and Kai as they progress through the floors of Aincrad to clear the game and return to the real world
1. Link Start!

**Author's Note**

 **This part of the story explains the start of the story. To understand the story a bit, I recommend you to read it. But if you hate long and boring explanations, you can skip to chapter 1.**

 **Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Sword Art Online.**

 **Nobody's PoV**

"Kazuto-nii-chan! Shin-nii-chan! I'm going to kendo practice! See you later!" shouted Suguha Kirigaya, as she went out the door, her kendo bag over her shoulder.

"Alright see you at dinner!" "Bye Sugu!" came shouts of reply from the 2 boys respectively. Kazuto was a 14-year old boy, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants. He had spiky black hair with matching onyx colored eyes tinted with a bit of gold. His face wasn't so masculine, yet it had its own charms, making a few girls crush over him. Shin, as Kazuto's twin brother, was a splitting image of him, it's only difference that his eyes were tinted blue, and had slightly longer hair over his bangs, and was less spikier than Kazuto's. He fashioned a blue t-shirt combined with jeans.

These two boys could easily be mistaken as members of the Kirigaya family, if based on looks alone. But in reality, they were adopted. Sugu was completely unaware of this fact, due to them being adopted when she was very young, and the fact that they were always together. Kazuto himself wasn't aware of this until he had hacked into a government file by the age of 10, and saw it for himself.

Kazuto was crushed by the fact that his once thought perfect family was a lie, but was pleased to see that Shin was truly his twin brother. Nevertheless, he started pulling away from the Suguha and their adoptive parents. He grew cold, and couldn't help but resent them a bit. Suguha, deeply hurt, tried to be closer to him, but had failed miserably when he always shut the door against her. It was not until recently that Kazuto had stopped pulling away, and had tried to make up for his actions.

But Shin had known that they were adopted from the start. He had remembered everything about their real parents and how they died, while Kazuto couldn't because he had suffered a slight amnesia due to trauma. Yet he had been silent about it and feigned surprise when Kazuto found out about the truth. He had been silent because he feared how both Suguha and Kazuto would react. He also wanted to spare himself the pain.

In truth, the were children from Hiroki and Keiko Sato who had died years ago in a car accident, when a drunk truck driver failed to see the red light and crashed to their car. Kazuto and Shin were the only survivors of that incident.

"Alright Kazuto you ready?"

"Yeah I'm all set!" He replied as they both set their nervegears on their heads and set "Sword Art Online" on the computer.

"Sword Art Online" was a VRMMORPG(Virtual Reality Mass Multiplayer Online RPG) that had been long anticipated. Both Shin and Kazuto were beta testers, and they had been eager to return. As the digital timer struck 1 o'clock at noon, both brothers said "Link Start!" and slipped into the virtual world.


	2. The Beginning of the Death Game

**Author's Note**

 **Alright sorry for the boring intro. A lot of explaining to do. Some parts will also be boring in some parts of this story, but things will look up in the next chapter, so please bear with me.**

 **Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Sword Art Online.**

*Shin's PoV*

 _"_ _Hello, welcome to Sword Art Online. I am Cardinal. Would you like to use your Beta Account?_

 _Account Name: Kai_

 _Gender: M_

 _Yes/No_

Well why the hell not?

I didn't want to go through the whole avatar thing again so I just selected "Yes"

After I did, I felt my appearance starting to change. I was a couple of inches taller, hair a bit long to cover my eyes, just because I think it's cool. Deal with it.

 _Welcome Back Kai. As a beta tester, you are given the privilege to select 2 items from your previous inventory. However, weapons and items with special powers will be restricted. Please select the items of your choice._

"Wow Really? I get to choose 2 items? That's awesome!" I thought to myself. I decided to keep one of my old weapons from the beta. It's one of the swords that I had from the start of the beta. It was powerful, but not strong enough to be considered too strong. The sword was a player-made one-handed sword called "Cobalt Striker". It was cobalt blue (You don't say) and was pretty heavy, but just right for me. I also selected a teleport crystal, since they don't come cheap in this game.

 _As a former beta tester, you also get 2000 points to upgrade a skill of your choice._

My mouth gaped at the screen in shock. That was enough to max out 2 skills! I quickly selected "acrobatics" and "sprinting", bringing both skills to the maximum extent.

 _Thank You, and Welcome to Aincrad_

Light quickly blurred my vision, and the next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of the Town of Beginnings. I quickly saw my brother and went to meet him. His Avatar was the exact same as mine, with the only difference was his shirt color (his was black and mine was blue) and hairstyle, which was made slightly longer, almost reaching his shoulders. His avatar's face was more masculine than his original one, yet still recognizable.

"We're back Shin!" he said happily.

"Shh! It's Kai in here!" I hissed.

"Right, right, sorry about that." He said while grinning.

Kazuto's in-game name is Kirito, taken from **Kiri** gaya Kazu **to**. It seemed that he also had gained the privileges of a former beta tester, because he had a pitch black one-handed longsword strapped on his back.

As they walked through the streets, a man ran over to them. "Hey, you guys were from the beta right?" he asked. When the two boys nodded, he continued "Can out help me out here? This is my first VRMMORPG and I need help learning the basics." He said. Kirito looked at Kai questioningly, and he nodded.

"Alright we'll help. My name is Kirito and he's my twin brother Kai." Kirito said.

"Well, that explained why you two look so alike. I thought I was seeing things. I'm Klein! So why don't we start by killing some monsters?" Klein offered. Both boys agreed, and they headed off to the fields near the town.

 ***Kirito's PoV, A few moments later***

"STAY STILL YOU STUPID PIG!" Klein screamed as he missed hitting a Wild Boar for the twentieth time. Seriously it's the easiest mob in the whole freakin game! The boar just grunted and charged him in the groin.

Ouch. If this was real life, that would have hurt a lot.

"AAAAAAIIIIIEEEEE" Klein screamed as his most sensitive part was crushed. He crumpled to the ground, groveling in pain. I just sighed. Really?

"Man, that's stupid. You do realize you can't feel pain in this game right?" Kai asked as I face-palmed. Klein realized this and stood up, embarrassed and muttered "Sorry… force of habit." Wait, force of habit?

"You mean that happened IRL before? Like, multiple times?" I asked, a grin slowly spreading on my face. "No! I mean, maybe yes… I mean…" He trailed of as Kai chuckled and i snickered.

"Yeah alright laugh all you want." He said, turning back to the boar. "So how do you activate these 'sword skills' you were talking about?"

"All you need to do is just getting to the right position, and then let the system do the work." I explained, and then i walked over to a boar near the first one while drawing my sword, Dark Destroyer. "For instance," I said, sliding into a battle stance, and then I performed a **'Vertical'** then continued with a **'Horizontal'** , killing the boar.

Klein got the idea and slid into his own stance. As the boar charged, he used a **'Horizontal'** and hit the boar. Squealing in pain, the boar charged again, only to meet its end on Klein's katana, as he performed a simple **'Thrust'.**

"WOOOO! I DID IT!" he yelled in triumph as the pig exploded to a thousand blue polygons. "Not bad. But you do know that was one of the most common mobs on this floor right?" Kai stated. Klein's expression fell. "What?!" he complained. "I thought it was a field boss or something…" At this, both I and Kai burst out laughing. Klein frowned. After a while, I and Kai stopped laughing. "Why would I make you fight a field boss as your first opponent? Anyway, want to continue grinding?" I asked, and Klein nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah! Let's keep going!"

 ***3 and a half hours later***

We took a short break, sitting on a hill nearby, watching the sun set in the horizon.

"It's Amazing. No matter how many times I remind myself, I keep forgetting that I'm in a video game." Klein said, shaking his head appreciatively. "Whoever made this game is a genius, for sure. I'm really glad I was born in this time!"

"You're so pumped up over these little things…" Kai remarked, shaking his head in amusement at their companion's energetic attitude.

"Hey! This is my first time in full-dive, you know!"

Say what now?

"Then…this is your first time using the NerveGear?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Yeah, I rushed out and bought all the gear and stuff for SAO. I was really lucky to get one of the ten thousand copies. You two are ten times luckier though, since you guys got into the beta test. Only a thousand got accepted."

"Yeah, I guess so." I muttered. I admit, I felt a little embarrassed. It felt kinda awkward.

"How far did you get in the beta?" Klein asked, curious. I glanced at Kai (Who glanced at me) and shrugged. "We made it to the 10th floor in two months, but this time, it'll definitely take less than one." Kai answered.

"That's pretty impressive. You two really seem to be into this." I nodded in agreement. I drew my sword, holding it in the light. Even though this world was virtual, it seems so real. "To be honest, during the beta test, SAO was all I thought about, day and night. In this world, one sword can take you anywhere you want to go. It's a virtual world, but I feel more alive and more at home here than I do in reality." I felt this way, because of my whole 'family situation' in real life.

"Well, that explains why you asked me to finish your homework from time to time." Kai muttered. I pretended not to hear. Instead, I sheathed my sword and turned to Klein. "Well, should we grind some more?"

"Of course!" he said eagerly. Then his face fell. "I mean, I'd love to…" his stomach grumbled, and he held a hand to his stomach. "But I'm really hungry. So… I'm going to eat."

"You know eating food here only makes you think you're not hungry right?" Kai pointed out.

Klein just smiled. "Nah don't worry. I've already ordered a hot pizza to be delivered to my house around 5.30!" he declared.

I laughed. "Prepared are you?" Klein nodded. "Yup! I'll log out, eat, and then come back!"

"I see…" I said. I trailed off, but Klein must've noticed, because he started talking again. "Hey, I'm going be meeting friends from another game when I get back. Do you want to friend them too, and join us?" he offered. I shuffled awkwardly. I was more of a solo player, or duo player with Kai. I don't really want to meet a lot of other people, since they could hold me back. Having one like Klein is fine, but if we take more…

"Hey, if you don't want to, that's fine! I can introduce you another time." Klein hastened, and I looked down. "Yeah, sorry…thanks." I felt bad, saying no, but meeting so many new faces at once would be too much.

"Yeah, thanks for offering, Klein." Kai said, more louder than I said it. I didn't pay attention, he's always been more… social than I have been.

"Hey, that's my line!" Klein grinned, walking up to them and putting a hand on our shoulders. "I owe you guys for all this. I'll find a way to pay you back! Virtually, of course. I'm broke in the real world, paying for all of this." Kai and I laughed along with him a bit. "If you need to know anything else, just ask us. Beta testers are here to help newbies, anyway. Without us, you would've probably ended up losing to wild boars." Kai joked, and Klein pouted mockingly.

"I'll do that!" See you guys around… oh, and before I forget…" He agreed, waving, before turning away and opening his menu. Suddenly he sent a friend request for me and my brother. Both of us accepted it. "Okay then, Kai and I will go grind more." I nodded and Kai waved, then we turned to leave. "Uh guys, this might sound really noob, but where's the log out button? Klein asked.

"Really? It's at the bottom of the menu." Kai sighed.

"No the icon is there, but there's no button to press."

Wait… what?

I sighed. Then I opened my own menu and pointed. "It's over-what the…" It WAS blacked out. Why the hell was it blacked out? Hmm... I've got a bad feeling about this.

"What the actual ****?" Kai muttered as he checked his own menu.

"I don't understand… is it a bug?" I murmured, staring at the menu.

"Well, it is the first day, so there's bound to be a few bugs right?" Klein said, a little annoyed. Then he grinned. "Heh, I bet the server people are freaking out right now."

"Uh-huh, and you will too." Kai said. I looked at him questioningly, and Klein stared, confused.

He grinned, pointing at his menu. "It's 5:25 now."

Aaah. His pizza.

I turned to see Klein, his face frozen in an expression of disbelief. Then his eyes widened comically, horrified. Throwing his head back and grabbing his hair with both hands, ha screamed to the heavens.

"NOOOO! MY TERIYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALE!" Kirito stared at him and sighed, while Kai clutched his stomach, laughing hard. "I need to get out of here! Return! Log out! Escape! Control-Alt-Delete!" Kai laughed harder. "Oh god, my stomach." He choked out. "This is NerveGear! You can't Alt-F4 this s***!"

"Hey Klein, calm down and contact the GM!"

"I did, but they're not answering! What's going on here?" Klein muttered, confused. "Hey, is there another way to log out?"

I thought for a moment. "Hmm, no. if a player wants to log themselves out, they have to use the menu." Kai shook his head, finally recovering from his laughing fit, frowning. "And there wasn't an emergency log-out in the manual either." Klein groaned. "That's nuts. There's gotta be another way out. I know! I can just rip the NerveGear off my head!"

…he's an idiot.

Reaching up to his head, he made lifting motions a few inches away from his skull. When it didn't work, he repeated his actions over and over again. "Oi, don't waste the effort. We can't move our real bodies while we're linked in. The NerveGear intercepts our brain signals remember? That's how we move in game." I said, and Klein stopped. "So we have to wait till they fix the bug?" he asked, and I shrugged. "Either that or someone has to unplug in the real world."

"I live alone so there goes that idea. How about you two?" Klein sighed.

"Our mom and sister should be back soon. They'll probably notice by dinner time." I said. Dashing forward, Klein grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me slightly.

"You have a sister? How old is she?" Oh. He wants to hit on her. There's no way I can let that happen. "She's on the sports team, and she doesn't really like gaming.

"That doesn't matter! I want a girlf-KYAAAAA!" I had enough. I rammed my knee at his crotch, and he flew backwards, screaming girlishly. He bounced on the grass and clutched it and writhed on the ground before blinking and nodding. Oh right, it doesn't hurt…"

"Uh guys? Doesn't seem a little weird to you?" Kai spoke up.

"Well, yeah, but it's just a bug right?" Klein asked. I stiffened, realizing our situation. "It can't be just a bug. If we can't log out, it could pose a very serious problem for SAO. If it really was a bug…"

"They'd already force-log out the players." Kai confirmed. "Plus, there hasn't been any GM announcements or anything, either."

Somewhere in the distance, we heard the sound of a ringing bell, echoing across the entire floor. Turing to the source of sound, we saw the Town of Beginnings. Suddenly, a light enveloped all three of us. When it subsided, we were standing in the middle of the Town of Beginnings' city square, and it seemed that every other player has too. Now I'm seriously feeling about this.

"A forced teleport?" I muttered. Suddenly a red warning sign showed up and formed a dome around us, sealing our way out. "What's going on?" Klein yelled. "I don't know, but I don't like it." Kai replied.

As soon as he said that, blood started pouring down from the top of the dome, until a whole ball of the substance hovered in mid-air. Then it formed to a fully cloaked man, face covered by his hood.

Wow 10/10 on that dramatic entrance.

 ** _[Attention All players. I Welcome You To My World]_**


	3. The Announcement of Despair

**Author's Note: Read on now, because things will be less "explanative" from this point on. Also, did I make Kirito and Kai too OP? If you do, please review and I'll do something about it later on. Don't forget to send Suggestions!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't Own Sword Art Online. I really want to, but sadly I don't.**

 _*Kai's PoV, 1_ _st_ _Floor of Aincrad, Town of Beginnings, Town Square*_

 ** _[Attention all players. I Welcome You to My World]_**

Right. Nice to feel welcomed- wait, "My world?" Oh man, we're facing Kaya-

 ** _[My name is Akihiko Kayaba. At this moment, I am in control of this world.]_**

Yup. That is definitely Kayaba. He didn't even let me finish my thoughts.

 ** _[I'm sure all of you have already noticed an important thing missing from your menus- The logout buttons.]_**

Why do I have a bad feeling about this? Please let my feelings be wrong. Please tell me he's come to fix this bug so we can stop worrying.

 ** _[Let me assure you…]_**

Oh thank god. For a minute I thought we were gonna be stuck he-

 ** _[…this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be.]_**

…..SH*T! Why did my gut feelings have to be so GOD-DAMN RIGHT in all the WRONG times! I remember having this test yesterday and I realized I got a few questions wrong. Why did my guts not react then? Why now?! F*CK!

"He's kidding… right?" Klein demanded uncertainly. I heard several players ask the same question. Why ask each other? Obviously no one knows, so why not ask the big dude who's just floating there?"

 ** _[You will not be able to log out from SAO. And no one will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head.]_**

Why not? All you need to do is pull the plug or pull the helmet off our he-

 ** _[If anyone attempts to do so, the transmitters in the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave signal and fry your brain, killing you.]_**

-ad. On second thoughts, not a good idea. Also, can you please stop cutting of my thoughts?

"T-That isn't possible is it?" Klein stuttered out. I shook my head. "It is. Those things in the NerveGear has a lot of microwave signals, and if the safety is removed, it'll fry our brain." I turned to Kirito. "is there any way to cut the power?" I asked. Kirito just shook his head. "It has built in batteries." He said. Just then, Kayaba started speaking again, and we focused on him.

 ** _[Despite my warning, many families and friends of some players have ignored them and tried to remove their NerveGears. This was an unfortunate choice, to say the least. As a result, this game has 213 less players from the initial amount. They have been deleted from both Aincrad and Real life.]_**

213? TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN?! What the hell?! This guy isn't human! He's a psychopath!

"What a bunch of bull! I'm not buying it! You're crazy!" Klein yelled, shaking his head in disbelief.

But then screens appeared around the red cloak-clad hooded man (a.k.a Kayaba). Each screen seemed to hold news articles of… well, sh-

 ** _[As you can see, international media outlets have round-the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths.]_**

Great. Really great. At this point, all I could feel is disbelief that this was happening and an unusual burning hatred towards Kayaba.

 ** _[At this point, the possibility that people will try this thing again is reduced to the minimum. I hope this will offer some comfort as you attempt to clear the game.]_**

Comfort? Seriously? The possibility of us DYING decrease by a little bit and you call that COMFORT? Also, 'clear the game?' About a million questons exploded in my already frustrated mind, disabling my ability to think straight.

 ** _[It is important to remember that there is no longer way to respawn in this game. If your health drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, and the NerveGear will fry your brain, ending you both. Forever.]_**

I heard Kirito gasp and looked over. He was glaring at Kayaba, seething with rage. Anger flooded through me too. How on earth are we supposed to clear the game if we can't respawn? Even Kirito and i couldn't do it, and we were the best beta testers in the whole game! N boss raids, a lot of people usually dies.

 ** _[There is only one chance to escape now. You must clear the game.]_**

Then he pressed a button on his menu, and a big holographic image appeared, a blinking red dot at the bottom of the image.

 ** _[Right now, you are on the 1_** ** _st_** ** _floor, the lowest level in Aincrad. If you manage navigate through floor's dungeon and beat the floor's boss, you will be able to advance to the next floor.]_**

Then the top of the image shown, indicating the 100th floor of Aincrad.

 ** _[If you can clear all the floors and beat the 100_** ** _th_** ** _floor boss, you will clear the game.]_**

Stunned silence filled the stadium, letting the message sink in. Then cries of "That's Impossible" and "How can we believe you?!" rang out. "No way!" Klein protested. "not even the beta testers got that far!" True. In the beta, we only managed to reach the tenth floor before the beta ended. Then Kayaba raised his hand.

 ** _[Finally, I have placed a little… present in each of your inventories. Please have a look.]_**

Confused, I opened my inventory. There was only a single new item: Hand Mirror. Reluctantly, I took it out. When I looked into it, I only saw myself. But a second later my mirror emitted a white glow and enveoped me in bright light. When I regained my vision, nothing seemed to be different except…

"Kirito?"

"Kai?"

Oh. Oh crap. Our avatar images faded, and our actual looks were restored. I looked around, and everyone seemed different from a moment ago. I even caught some male players wearing female clothes. I guess this was to reveal each other's true identities and not mistake each other's… genders.

"Where's Klei-HOLY CRAP!" I shouted, because in Klein's placewas a man with bandit-like looks, and his hair was a deeper color of red. "K-Klein? Is that you?" I asked in disbelief.

Klein looked at the both of us in surprise. " Yeah it's me. Wow, you guys really are twins. If it weren't for your gear, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea on who is who, cuz I have no idea what you looked like in the first place."

""Right"" both me and Kirito said simultaneously. Klein's face sported a dumbfounded look, and both me and Kirito smirked lightly before retaining our serious expressions. "But how is this possible?" Klein asked. I thought about it for a second. "The scan." I realized. "it scans every player in the start of the game remember?"

Klein put both of his hands to his head. "But- What- Why would he do this to us? What's the point?" Before any of us could take a guess, Kayaba started speaking again.

 ** _[You're probably wondering 'Why?' Why would Akihiko Kayaba, the developer of both the NerveGear and Sword Art Online do such a thing. Is it Money? Fame? It isn't any of those things. My only goal is to control the fate of the world I designed, like a God.]_**

Insanity. That is the only thing that could explain this man's actions. He's a psychiotic madman, however genius, who desired to be a God. And in this world, he could.

"Kayaba…" Kirito growled. I was as angry as he was. Who did he think he was? Does he think he wold be able to get away with this? No. I will not die. I will escape from this game, then I will beat the crap out of him before they manage to put him in jail. Determination and rage seemed to course through my veins.

 ** _[This marks the end of my turtorial, and the official start of Sword Art Online. Good luck, Players.]_**

And with that happy note, he dissolved into remnants of red liquid, quickly absorbed into the cracks in the red dome. Shortly after that, the dome of 'WARNING!' hexagons disappeared, and the sky was cleared. Everyone stood there, silent and motionless. It wasn't a game anymore. It was our new reality, trapped in a game by the most genius psycho people had seen in years.

Suddenly, people started screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" Oh but it IS happening.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" uh, no it was stated that it wasn't a joke.

"I HAVE A MEETING TOMORROW AFTERNOON!" Just hope they don't fire you.

"I WANT MY MOMMY!" Wait, that was a grown man's voice. How old are you man?

"WE'RE F*CKED!" Yep, pretty much sums that all up.

Kirito looked and Klein and said "C'mon Klein, let's go!" then all three of us ran to the nearest exit. We stopped in an empty alley, away from the chaos. "Alright listen. Kai and I are going to head out to the next village. We want you to come with us." Kirito stated and I nodded. "If what Kayaba said was true, we can only win by getting stronger." I said, then I pulled out my map. "In an MMORPG game like this, we can earn money, EXP, but resources are limited. Soon enough, the mobs in the fields around the Town of Beginnings will run out. If we go to the next town, we'll have a bigger chance of getting more col, EXP, and items." I looked up at Klein. "we remember the roads leading there, and places that are better not to enter yet. Even with our current level, it should be easy enough."

I looked at our levels. I seem to be level 2, and so is Kirito's but Klein's is Level 1. Remembering how it was in the beta, it should be enough. But Klein looked troubled. "Sorry guys, but I have some friends left behind there. I can't leave them. We all waited a whole night to buy this game." He smiled sadly. I understood, but we can't possibly take so many people. Three would be just enough, but we can't possibly handle more than that.

Klein seemed to read our expressions. "It's alright. You two go ahead. I can't possibly ask you two to risk your lives for us right?" he smiled. " I was a guild leader in a game before this so I should be alright. And you taught me a lot of useful things too. We'll catch up to you soon enough."

I nodded. "Alright, but if you run into trouble, send us a message okay?" Klein gave us a thumbs up. "Will do." He said. As we turned and ran, he yelled "Oh by the ways, you guys look way better than your avatars." Kirito smirked and yelled back "Thanks! That face looks 10 times better on you too!" He laughed, and as he turned to walk away, I yelled "Good luck Klein! Don't die on us okay!" I know it wasn't a big encouragement, but it was all I could say at the moment. He seemed to get the message and gave the victory sign over his shoulder.

Without delay, Kirito and I ran across the fields, heading to the next city. We had a few mobs in the way, but we cut them down with our swords. We fought all the way to our destination, not stopping at all.

I made a promise to myself that I would not die in this game. All the way, I thought about how my aunt, no, _mom_ would think if I died. What _Suguha_ would think if we died. As Kazuto and I fought through the mobs, we swore to survive. To not be beaten. To win.

 **And that is the end of chapter 2! Wow if you don't count the Author's note in the beginning and end, that would make it nearly 1,7K words! Big improvement from chapter 1 right?**

 **Thanks for reading this. Please leave reviews, no matter if it's a praise, an insult, both, or suggestions. Especially suggestions. As my first fanfic, I would love to know if anything went wrong. Now I would like to clear a few things.**

 **One. No, Shin/Kai isn't a self insert. He's just a purely imaginative character, and he comes from the ideas of my mind, Inspired by other fanfics I've read, like** ** _the Destroyerhog an more's 'SAO Alternate Universe' and KnightEstoc's 'Nightblade'. Where does the second story come with this? I have no idea. Maybe later. But I said INSPIRED. I will not steal any of their unique ideas, as I love reading both of their fanfictions. Give them a look. I'm sure you'll love them too._**

 **Two. No, Leafa, Sinon and Yuuki isn't going to make an appearance in this fanfic. Why? Well, if you want stories from the "Fairy Dance" Arc,"Phantom Bullet" Arc and the "Mother's Rosario" Arc for later separate fanfics, I suggest you don't ask.**

 **Three. Yes, there will be separate fanfictions for each arc in Sword Art Online Season 1 and 2, including "Aincrad" (Duh?), "Fairy Dance", "Phantom Bullet", "Calibur", "Mother's Rosario, and maybe if highly supported, "Alicization".**

 **Four. There will be 2 OCs in this fan fiction, one will be released soon enough.**

 **Five. No, it will not be OC pairing with another OC.**

 **I'll try to get the next chapter posted next week. Stay cool you guys!**


	4. First Day, First Betrayal

**Author's note: wow I'm updating this story FAST! This is my 4** **th** **Update, Chapter 3! I'd like to thank Death467d and dawnplaya55 for the positive reviews! I took up your suggestions and corrected my grammatical errors. I also took Death467d's advice to make it a bit more detailed. As thanks, I'll take up your opinion to make Kai and Kirito a bit more OP. One last thing. Sword Alternate Online, this story has no relation whatsoever to Bomberman1117's** _ **The Twin Swordsmen.**_ **I'd like to apologize to him, because it seems that I have unintentionally stole his story's title (I had no idea that his story's existed until recently, but I've read it. It's pretty nice.). Anyway, on with the Chapter.**

 **Chapter 3:**

 **First day, First Betrayal**

 **Quest for the Anneal Blade**

 _ ***Horunka Town, First Floor, Aincrad***_

 _ ***Kirito's PoV***_

We arrived in Horunka pretty easily. Even so, we both had to use a health potion when we reached there. Because the mobs were more advanced in the fields around Horunka, me and Kai had both leveled up to level 3.

"That was pretty tiring…. And my sword's durability has neared half." Kai said as we reached the town's shop.

Half? Only half? My sword's durability has shrunk to an eighth of the original amount. Heh, must have been because I switched to the Anneal Blade earlier in the game. He upgraded his to half the maximum before switching it….

"Me too. Well, that means we'll just have to repair them before we do the quest for the Anneal Blade right?" I said. "We'd like to buy a few Health potions please. 4 should be enough." I said, turning to the NPC standing at the counter of the shop. "80 Col" he said, putting the items in a trade Menu. I quickly put up my menu and put 80 Col on the trade menu. After I got the potions, I gave 2 to Kai.

"Thanks. Can I buy some throwing picks please? 20 I guess." Kai said to the NPC.

I let Kai do his business while I took our swords to the blacksmith shop to get repaired. I also got my sword upgraded 3 times, spending half of my Wolf Teeth in the process. Player blacksmiths would've done the job better, but it was enough for now. My Dark Destroyer is now +5 in upgrades, but that was nothing to Kai's. His sword was upgraded to +10 from the maximum +20.

"All set?" Kai asked, appearing beside me. "Yep, we're good to go." I replied, and we both headed to the quest giver's house to obtain the Anneal Blade.

CLANG!

Kai ducked as a metal pot nearly took his head off. If it wasn't for his quick reflexes, his face would be half flat by now. I wonder who was throwing pots at us. I turned to the quest giver's house- and jumped out of the way because someone swung a pan at my direction. _Who the hell is throwing pots at us! Why us?!_ I thought as I ducked another swing from the angry NPC. "WHOA! WHOA! CHILL WOMAN! WE COME IN PEACE!" I screamed as she threw the pan at where my face was a second ago. Kai was looking at the woman and I saw recognition in his eyes. "KIRITO!" he yelled. "It's the quest giver!"

At the word 'Quest', a question mark appeared above her head. "We've come to help!" I said quickly, and a shocked expression filled the woman's face. The golden question mark started to blink. "Help?" she whispered, hope filling in her eyes. She lowered her pan. "I'm sorry" she said sheepishly, I thought you were thieves who tried to steal the food I've made." Then she looked up. "Follow me." she said simply and walked towards the house.

I followed, and Kai joined us quickly. We came into a large room, a fire crackling warmly in the fireplace. We entered a room with a bed, and saw a girl laying on the bed. She was very pale, and was sweating profusely.

"My daughter has caught a terrible sickness, swordsman. Even the medicine from the market cannot heal her." She said sadly, staring at her daughter. "The only cure to this particular illness is to drink the medicine from the ovules of the Little Nepent in the forest to the west of this city." She turned to me. "Unfortunately, these Nepents are very dangerous, and I am not a fighter. It is also very rare." Her face turned serious, but a little pleading too. "If you help me, I will give you the Anneal Blade. Will you help me?" as she said that last word, a quest notification appeared in front of me.

 _Quest:_

 _Secret Medicine of the Forest_

 _Difficulty:_

 _Moderate_

 _Prize:_

 _Anneal Blade x1_

 _Accept Quest?_

 _Yes/No_

I selected 'Yes', and the question mark turned into an exclamation mark. "Good luck Swordsman." She said.

 _ ***Horunka Forest, 1**_ _ **st**_ _ **floor, Aincrad***_

 _ ***Kai's PoV***_

Before we left the town, we met a man with another question mark on his head. He seemed to be panicked. When we interacted with him, he said "Please help! They're everywhere in the forest! I need you to kill those monsters!" then the quest window appeared in front of us.

 _Quest:_

 _Kill 100 Little Nepents!_

 _Difficulty:_

 _Moderate_

 _Prize:_

 _500 Col_

 _3000 EXP_

 _Enforced Leather Gloves x 1_

 _Accept Quest?_

 _Yes/No_

Two quests that has the same type of enemies?!

Sweet.

Kirito glanced at me. "Wanna do it?" he asked me.

"Of course!" I selected 'Yes'. "Why wouldn't I? We'll be killing Nepents all night long anyway…"

 _ ***Exactly 2 hours later***_

"I DIDN'T MEAN LITERALLY ALL NIGHT LONG!" I screamed at the heavens. We've been hunting for hours and it's already dark! AND not one single Nepent with a flower appeared. Another Nepent lunged a us and I slashed at it absentmindedly, separating it in two. It exploded before it hit the ground and a golden glow surrounded me. I blinked. A window appeared saying:

 _Congratulations!_

 _You are now level 5!_

Big surprise. At this rate, we'll be level 10 before we leave this forest. A few seconds later, Kirito also leveled up. Then we heard someone clap behind us. Turning quickly, we both drew our weapons and pointed them at the figure. It was a player. He was slightly taller than us, but around the same age. He was equipped with equipment we saw from the store in the village. We sheathed our swords. "S-sorry for startling you. I should've said something before that." He said embarrassedly. "Sorry we overreacted." I mumbled.

"Congratulations on leveling up. That was pretty damn quick." He said. "It's not that fast." Kirito said quickly. "And you were pretty quick too. I didn't think anyone would reach here for at least another three hours." The boy laughed lightly. "Yeah I thought I would be the first to reached here too. The path to reach this place is kinda confusing." There was something about this boy that I didn't like. I'm pretty sure he knew what we were doing here. "You guys are doing the quest right? The 'Secret Medicine of the Forest' quest?" See? I'm starting to think I'm turning psychic here. If one more prediction of mine becomes true, I'll probably start reading tarot cards. Or I'll do palmistry. Or crystal ball gazing. You know what? F*ck divination. I'll probably do horrible anyway.

""It's an important quest for one-handed sword users like us, after all. It's good enough to last all up to the 4th floor." The boy said. What did he say his name was again? I didn't think he told us. Well, I think we'll know soon. Kirito grinned. "It's looks weird though." The boy laughed brightly, and I couldn't help but smirk a little.

"Well, uh…" said the mysterious boy who's name I still don't know. "since we're doing the same quest, do you want to work together? We'll finish faster that way."

I frowned. "Isn't this a individual quest?" I asked. "Only one of us can get the sword, after all."

The Boy-who-has-not-been-named's face fell, but immediately brightened again, and he said "Don't worry. We can get a second flower for me later." My jaw dropped. "But it takes hours for one to spawn! We can't possibly stay here all night! I protested. This was technically true. We've spent 2 hours in this forest and not one has spawned. Plus, I don't like this guy.

The boy (I'm really getting tired of saying 'The boy') smiled. "well, if there are more people in a group, the possibility of a flowering Nepent to appear will increase the faster we kill the regular ones. If we all work together, we'll be done faster." Kirito stiffened a bit. "Do we have to form a party?" Kirito said, slightly dejected. But luckily, The boy (TELL US YOUR F***ING NAME ALREADY!) shook his head. "No, that wouldn't be necessary." I sighed in defeat. He was right, and I really want to get this over with. "Alright, let's do this" I said. "My name is Kai." Kirito then walked over and raised his right hand. "Kirito."

The boy (Aw C'mon..) tilted his head slightly when we introduced ourselves. "Kirito and Kai… where have i…" he muttered. "Probably someone else." Kirito said quickly.

The boy (ARGH!) smiled stepped forward shook hands with us. " Y-Yeah I guess so… Alright! My name (FINALLY!) is Coper."

Oookay… I guess it has nothing to do with copper then.

 _ ***Kirito's PoV, half an hour later***_

We still hadn't found it. This was getting boring. All Kai had to do was hit the Nepents once because of his upgraded sword. I had to hit at least twice, and Coper had to finish them off with sword skills. "This is taking too long" I growled. Kai agreed. "We've leveled up, but each of our weapon's durability is lowering. Maybe we should take a break and…" Kai broke off. The four hundred and fifty sixth Nepent has just spawned. But this Nepent was different. This one has a flower on its head. The flower looked like a red tulip, and was protruding from the monster's head. Soon after, a second one spawned. Coper cried out in triumph and started to charge, but something caught my eye. I thrust out a hand, stopping Coper from going any further. "Look." I whispered, pointing at the trees near the two flowering Nepents. It was another Nepent, but with a fruit growing on its head. "What do we do?" Kai whispered. "if that thing bursts, it'll call all the other Nepents in the area.

"…Come on." Coper whispered. "I'll hold the fruit off. You guys get the flowers." I nodded. "Understood." I breathed out. It was a good strategy. Both me and Kai has the best attack power. Coper rushed a the fruit Nepent and engaged it. "Let's go!" I yelled to Kai, and both of us rushed the flower Nepents. Both of them lashed out with their vines, but I easily dodged them while Kai hacked the vine with his sword. Not even slowing down a bit, we continued to run towards the two Nepents. When we got in range, I lunged at the left Nepent, while Kai jumped at the right one. Vines rained down at me, but none of them hit me. I grabbed one of the vines, and as it was being retracted, I pulled myself up then let go so I would be over the Nepent. I activated my sword skill Downwards Thrust, killing it instantly. Then the drop window appeared in front of me.

 _You Obtained:_

 _50 XP_

 _15 Col_

 _Quest Item: Nepent's Flower x1_

Finally! I looked over at Kai and he had got his too. "That was for making me wait for 2 and a half hours." He growled at where the Nepent was. I turned to Coper. "C'mon Coper! We're done here! Let's g-" I cut myself off. Coper had just jumped back and burst the Nepent's fruit with his sword. He wouldn't look at us. "I'm sorry." He said simply. "Coper? Wha…" Kai trailed off… Nepents had started to appear from all directions. "I'm sorry." He repeated. Then he disappeared. "He's trying to kill us" I muttered. Kai cursed under his breath. "MPK?" he growled. We positioned ourselves back-to-back. Then we noticed some Nepents moving towards where Coper was a few seconds ago. "Hey Kai." I said loudly. "Remember something about the Hiding skill's weakness?" "Yeah." He replied loudly, understanding what I was planning to do. "You can't possibly hide from some things that don't use their eyes to sense their surroundings. For example," his eyes searching the surroundings, "The Little Nepent."

"WHAT?!" screamed a voice. We spun in that direction and saw Coper appeared, surrounded by a group of Nepents. Coper drew his sword and started fighting as Nepents attacked. We ran in the opposite direction as most of the Nepents were focused on Coper. Some broke off from the large group to stop us but we just cut them down. Not long after, we heard a sound of glass shattering, but not the way monsters died. It was signifying Coper's Death. We looked back, and all of the Nepents were following us. We couldn't possibly go back like this. The monster's would crowd all around the city. Both of us stopped and drew our weapons. As the monsters attacked, we charged to meet them.

 _ ***Kai's PoV, Half an hour later***_

After ugly no.946 had been killed, we walked over to the place where Coper had died. All that was left of him was his longsword, and a pouch containing a few crystals. We shared the crystals, then Kirito picked up Coper's sword and stabbed it down and the roots of the largest tree in the clearing. Then I took my flower from my inventory and placed it next to the sword. "Here's yours Coper" I muttered. Then we turned to leave. He may be an idiotic dumbass, but he was still human. Each human's life ended is always important, even if he did try to kill us.

We reached Horunka Town by 9:00 o'clock. After I collected the prizes of my quest, Kill 100 Nepents, we headed to the quest giver's house. When we gave her the flower, she looked younger and more energetic than she was before. She quickly extracted the ovule from the flower and put it in the pot over the fire. Then she took a long but thin box from the top of a cupboard and gave it to Kirito. "Take this kind Swordsman." She said. "It is the Anneal Blade. This sword is powerful, but I have no use for it. I hope it will help you on your Journey." As soon as she said that, a sign Quest Completed had spawned over our heads. A window appeared in front of Kirito. A prize window I expect. He clicked a few buttons and unequipped the Dark Destroyer, switching it out with his Anneal Blade.

The woman had entered the room where her daughter was. Out of curiosity, we followed her. The woman had spooned some medicine into her daughter's mouth. Soon, color flooded back to the little girl's face and she opened her eyes. When she spotted us, she smiled brightly and said: "Onii-chan, thank you!"

I heard Kirito, or maybe I should say Kazuto, let a sound like a sob, and I turned to him. Tears were flowing down his face. I patted his back, tears swimming around in my own eyes. That particular phrase had reminded me of Suguha when we were younger. "Sorry." He choked out. "I just… I just miss them."

"Me too." I told him. "We'll see them again. I know we will." He nodded, wiping his tears away with his sleeve. "When we do, we'll have to make it up to her. I'm sure she's worried." He muttered. I chuckled. "Kazuto?" he looked at me, not minding the use of his real name. "You still have me. You got that? If you ever need help, just call my name and I'll be rushing over alright?"

"Got it. Thanks Shin." He said. I smiled. He'll be alright.

"Shin?" Kazuto said

"Yeah?"

"Call me Kirito in public alright? Kazuto when we're alone."

I nodded. "Ditto." I said.

After that, we repaired our weapons and rented a room. Both of us were exhausted by today's events, and we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. It wasn't great. The room was kinda small, had just a single bedroom, and it smelled like cats. But at least it was kinda peaceful, and for now, some peace and quiet would be enough.

 **And that is the end of Chapter 3! I hoped you guys liked it. Boy that was around 2,6K words, and I'm beat! I won't be able to update anytime soon. Test weeks are coming and I gotta panic-I mean study! Yeah… study.. shoot that sounds boring already.**

 **Anyway, I'll be updating this next week at latest. Look forward to it ok? Some ideas and suggestions would not be amiss either. As Death467d requested, I made Kirito and Kai a little more OP, enabling them to kill Nepents in one or two hits. And for your information, none of Kirito's or Kai's health hit the yellow area once.**

 **Many thanks for those who liked, followed, and reviewed.**

 _ ***The Real World, Around 3 o'Clock earlier today***_

 _ **Nobody's PoV**_

Suguha Kirigaya had just finished her Kendo class, and was walking down the streets towards her home. ' _I wonder what Kazuto and Shin are doing…'_ She thought. ' _I guess they must be playing that new game they bought today. Sword Art Online they called it?'_

As she walked passed a Café, she looked at a crowd of people looking at the TV. _'Strange'_ she thought. ' _it isn't football night so what could possibly attract-'_

"… Victims of the newest virtual reality game **'Sword Art Online'** had been taken to the hospital earlier today..'

Suguha froze. _'Sword Art Online?! But that's the game that Kazuto and Shin are playing today!'_ she stopped and stared at the TV, afraid of what she might hear. "Akihiko Kayaba has trapped 10,000 people around the world in this virtual reality game. It is stated that nobody would be able to log out from the game until the game is cleared. Apparently, trying to force the NerveGear off their head or trying to log them out of the game by outside help would instantly kill the player. 213 people had already been confirmed dead, and Kayaba's location is unknown. Officials have…"

But Suguha wasn't listening anymore. She had started running, faster than she had ever ran before, desperate to reach home. ' _Please!'_ she prayed ' _Please let them be alright! That they haven't logged in to the game_ _at all!_

But her hopes were destroyed as soon as she saw the ambulance in front of her house, and her mother standing there crying. "Mom!" She cried "I-A-Are they-" she stuttered in panic, but Midori Kirigaya shook her head. "No Sugu… they're alive, but they're being moved to the hospital. Come on." She said, and she climbed into the ambulance. Suguha followed, and gasped to see both of her brothers lying on the ambulance's small beds, motionless. She burst into tears and clutched their hands. "Please wake up…" she croaked weakly, tears sliding down her cheeks and dropped from the tip of her chin. " Kazuto, Shin, _Please!"_ she sobbed harder than ever, but they were unresponsive to her cries for them. Kirigaya Midori could only stroke her daughter's back, tears sliding down her cheeks as well. For now, they could do nothing more than wish for the best… and brace themselves for the worst.


	5. Reunions and a Meeting

**Author's Note: Alright! Here's Chapter 4! Hey listen.** _ **Andeloth**_ **, a reviewer of mine had recommended me to put the story in 3** **rd** **person view. However, I still want to put some of the character's personal view in the story. I'm just gonna say that 3** **rd** **person view chapters are gonna show up more often ok? I didn't want to make things up for day 2 and more so I decided to skip on to the point where it's before they had the boss meeting, before they met Asuna by a few hours. If anyone has any suggestions, or requests, please review or PM me. Have fun reading!**

 _ **Chapter 4**_

 _ **Reunions and a Meeting**_

 _ *** December 2, 2022***_

 _ ***Outside the First floor Dungeon, Aincrad***_

Kirito and Kai walked across the fields towards a town named Tolbana. "That… wasn't as hard as I thought it would be." Kai commented as he walked. "Nothing needed more than a hit to kill." And that was for the toughest mobs on this floor." Kirito just chuckled. "Oh quit complaining." He said. "That's only because our levels are over 2 times higher than theirs."

In the past month, Kirito and Kai both had reached level 12. This was because of grinding everyday, in addition of doing a considerable amount of quests. So now, both of their levels and equipment were high over the average players.

Suddenly, a large amount of giant wasps appeared from the bushes. Kai looked at them as if he were bored. "Oh look. Wild Vespids." He pointed out. Kirito yawned. "Hi." he said lazily at the wasps, waving. The Wasps looked confused. Usually, players had shown more reaction than this.

Then the twins pulled out random things from their inventories. "Hmm. I got Wolf Hides, a couple of Boar Tusks, and some Wolf Teeth. How about you?" Kirito asked. Kai just showed him. "Shall we start?" Kai asked. "Sure." Kirito replied, and took aim.

Before the wasps could figure out what was happening, the front wasp was hit by a wolf Hide and shattered to polygons. "One." Kirito claimed.

Then 2 wasps were pieced by a Boar Tusk. "Two in One" Kai replied.

"4" Kirito countered, hitting 3 more.

"5"

"11"

"The hell?! You threw all your claws at once!"

"No rules saying I can't"

"Fuck."

Soon, the entire mob had burst into polygons, hit by the twin's barrage of junk. "Alright c'mon. We need to get to Tolbana." Kirito said, and walked off without waiting for an answer. Kai caught up a second later, and both of them walked towards the town. However, they stopped when they heard the sound of combat from inside the dungeon, not far away. Kai looked at Kirito. "Let's check it out" Kirito said. Then we sprinted into the dungeon.

 _ ***15 minutes later***_

 _ ***Kirito's PoV***_

Weird. The entire area we went through seemed to be empty. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but still. Whoever who's been here clearly was a solo player. We couldn't hear any voices shouting orders. Either it's a solo, or it's a person whose entire guild died.

Jeez. The second one would be depressing.

Anyway, we turned a corner and saw a lone figure fighting a mob of Kobold Guards, and it didn't seem things were going well. The solo player was wearing a hooded cloak, it's shadows covering his face. He was using… a rapier? Wow, that's different. This is the first person I ever saw using a rapier.

The figure was insanely fast. His rapier turned into blurs of metal as the figure attacked monster after monster. Then I saw the figure got into a stance, and her sword started to glow green, signifying the start of a sword skill. I watched in awe as the figure executed a Linear so perfectly, it didn't seem like an attack. It seemed like the figure was dancing, executing sword skill after sword skill.

That's when things started to go wrong. The figure froze due to the cool down time of the consecutive sword skills he used, and aKobold Guard brought his mace down on him. I rushed forward. I can't let someone die! Not if I can help.

I redirected the Kobold's attack with a strike of my sword, missing the figure. "You okay?" I asked. "The figure didn't answer, simply bringing her sword and attacking another Kobold. Kai joined us, and with the three of us, we finished the mob off soon enough. The figure sheathed his sword and sat down, pulling out a health potion. He seemed tired, exhausted even.

"Hey" I said. "In that fight just now, you were doing great, but you used sword skills too frequently." I know I sounded like a teacher criticizing his student, but I know what I had to do. "If you do, you'll have to cool down afterwards, and you'll be vulnerable to attacks. You should've-"

"It doesn't matter"

The figure had turned to me. His voice was too soft to be a man's voice. I looked more carefully, and I noticed her posture was feminine. From under the hood, I could only see from the tip of her chin to the top of her mouth, but it didn't look masculine. It looked smooth, and every part a girl.

Huh. It was a girl. I guess I didn't notice because of the fight. I wasn't surprised that she was hiding her identity though. Female players were pretty rare, so they had a lot of attention. _Uncomfortable_ attention. Especially from some of the male players.

"I killed them didn't I? That's the only thing that matters." The girl said. I was a little taken aback, but I replied anyway. "You still have come back out of the dungeon right? It'll take an hour to get out from here, and still some time to get to the town. If you're exhausted like this, you'll end up getting yourself killed." I reasoned.

The rapier user just stared at me, silent. "Um, hello? Anyone home?" Kai said from behind me, clearly getting impatient on the lack of response from the girl. She hadn't noticed Kai and jumped, looking back and forth between us. "Are you…" she started. "Twins? Yeah we are. Both in real life and in game." Kai answered quickly. The girl looked back and forth between us, trying to spot the differences. Then she said "Well I'm not going back, so that shouldn't be a problem." She said finally, turning back to me.

"Wait,.." I started, "What?!" Kai finished. I had to admit, the part where we finished each other's sentences is cool, but that wasn't important now. "What about your supplies and equipment? Not to mention rest." In this game, you can feel fatigue. If you don't rest for a long time, you could black out from exhaustion.

Her hood shifted. "I don't need health potions unless my health is really low, and I have five of the same swords in my inventory. As for rest, I sleep in safe areas." I was surprised. I had tried that before, but it was kind of hard to relax when mobs were prowling on the outside of the safe zone, growling or banging their weapons.

"How long have you been here?" I heard Kai ask.

The girl sighed. "Three days"

"And the last time you've eaten something?"

"…"

"You can't go on like this. You'll die if you do."

I felt kinda sorry for her. She seemed exhausted, and her eyes felt empty, like she was only waiting to die. She confirmed that with what she said next.

"I don't care. We'll all die anyway. It isn't possible to clear this game." She said. "It's already been a month, and we haven't cleared the first floor boss."

"I know things seem hopeless, but there's still a chance to beat this game." I said.

The girl opened her mouth to retort, but before she could say anything, Kai spoke up. "There's a boss raid meeting In Tolbana." The girl froze and looked at Kai. "… a meeting?" she whispered. I nodded. "That's true. It'll start in three hours. If you're interested in beating the boss, you should go." I stated. The girl hesitated a bit before walking off without saying a word.

"You would've thought she would give us a 'thank you' for saving her life." Kai sighed. I grinned and playfully punched him on his shoulder. "Cheer up. While we're already in here, how about some grinding. I bet I can kill more mobs than you." I challenged. Kai smirked. "Oh, you're on!" he yelled, and the both of us sprinted of to find some mobs.

 _ ***Two and a quarte**_ **r** _ **hours later, Tolbana***_

 _ ***Kai's PoV***_

"Well, we still have 45 minutes before the meeting starts." I said as we entered Tolbana. "what do you want to do?"

We had been able to grind to level 14, but it wasn't much. We met a blacksmith on the way back, and had repaired our weapons and upgraded them. My Cobalt Striker has already reached a +14, and Kirito's Anneal Blade had been upgraded to +8. 2 more upgrades and that sword has reached it's upgrade limit.

We were making progress fast enough. That's what all-day grinding gives you. Both of us were wearing pretty advanced versions of Leather Armor, but not too advanced. The only thing giving my position away as a beta tester is my sword.

"Well," Kirito started, putting his hand up to his chin, thinking. "I think we can-"  
"Ki-bou~"

"WHOA!"

I turned just in time to see Kirito fall face first as a figure tackled him from behind. I recognized her immediately. I grinned as Kirito struggled to stand, the figure still latched to his back.

"Sup, Argo" I said.

Argo 'The Rat'.

Aincrad's best information broker. She was a beta tester, like Kirito and I, but she specializes in buying and selling info to players. Also, she was a good friend of ours. We met her in the first week of the game, and it turns out she had started looking for info to sell. She was the third person in each of our friends lists, which only contained Her, Klein, and of course, Kirito.

Argo has curly auburn hair, but she always covers it with a hood. She rarely puts down her hood, usually only for people she trusts. Namely, me and Kirito. Her eyes were a light shade of violet, but the most obvious feature was her choice of "make-up". Three whisker marks on each cheek.

She looked at me over Kirito's Shoulder and grinned. "Hey, Kai." She replied, and Kirito groaned. "Okay, first, why does Kai get his named called properly? Second, do you have to tackle me every time we meet?" He complained. Argo blinked then she smiled. "First, Kai's name only has one syllable. It's kinda hard to think of something you know?" Kirito grumbled. "And as for the second question," Argo started, before snuggling into his neck, "It's because it's Ki-bou!" Kirito blushed slightly, and I laughed.

"Shut up, Kai." Kirito grumbled. "Aw, but you two look kinda cute that way." I teased. At this both parties blushed. I laughed even harder. Oh, this was hilarious. This has been going on since the beta, but it never gets old. It's always funny to see! Well, not when she did it to me. Mostly, she does it to Kirito, but occasionally, I'm her target.

Argo climbed off Kirito's back, her face still a little red. "Anyway Ki-bou, the player who wanted to buy your sword raised his offer." I raised my eyebrows. This player seemed to be really persistent about the sword. This was his third attempt to buy the sword off Kirito, and we had rejected his first two offers. "Really?" Kirito asked. "How much?" Argo shrugged. "28,000 Col" she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

At this my mouth hung open. It was twice the amount he had offered the last time. This player must really want this sword if he was willing to pay this much. Even so, we had just upgraded this sword, therefore raising our price standards. Apparently, Kirito thought so, because he rejected this offer too. "Sorry Argo, but tell him that it isn't enough. We had just upgraded the sword to +8, and it's price had risen." He said.

Argo nodded and left with a word of goodbye to Kirito and me, probably to inform the player. I checked the time. "Wow." I said "We just effectively burned 20 minutes talking to her." Kirito just laughed. "Well, we still have 25 minutes. What do you want to do?" he asked. "We can talk, buy some supplies, upgrade our weapons, or relax." I replied quickly.

We decided to buy supplies and upgrade our weapons. I got upgrading duty. So I walked over to the blacksmith shop, carrying both my Cobalt Striker and Kirito's Anneal Blade. I walked up to the counter. "Upgrade sharpness and dexterity please." I said to the NPC blacksmith, placing the swords on the counter. Or, at least I thought it was an NPC.

"Sure thing! You got the materials right?" the blacksmith said, turning. I froze. I knew that voice. It was different, yet recognizable. Apparently, the blacksmith recognized me too, because a look of surprise filled his face.

"Riley?"

"Shin?!"

He jumped over the counter and put me in a headlock, ruffling my hair with the other.

"Wha- Riley! Stop!" I protested. He let me go and laughed. "Is that how you say hello to an old friend?" he grinned. "I've missed you! How long has it been?"

I rubbed my neck, trying to remember. "3 years? Before you and the others moved to Kyoto." Riley smacked a hand to his forehead. "Oh yeah! The others!" then he turned to the stairs. "Hey guys! Come down here!" he shouted. I heard a door open and someone came down the stairs. A hazel-colored girl walked down, followed by a blonde boy and a black-haired girl. "What is it Ri? Wh-" Then she spotted me and her eyes widened, along with the other two.

"Shin?" said the hazel-haired girl.

"Wh-what the" said the blond dude.

"Kirigaya Shin?!" said the last girl.

"Hey Rin, Takao, Amy." I said sheepishly "How are y-OOF!"

That was all I could say before I was buried under a many armed hug.

I guess I should explain.

Riley, Rin, Takao, and Amy were my oldest friends when Kazuto was being distant. I had to take care of him, but I had a few best friends to keep me company in my free time. Unfortunately, they moved to Kyoto when I was 11, and I never saw them since.

Riley and Rin were siblings, while Takao and Amy were, well, more than friends. Apparently they started dating a year ago. Riley and Rin got Sword Art Online on Christmas, while Takao got his from his uncle. Amy got her game by buying it.

Riley's a year older than me. He has brown hair, but he dyes a streak of hair red. He has matching brown eyes and quite light skin. He's a couple inches taller than me, but not by a lot. Rin has hazel-colored hair, and she's around my age. Like her brother, she has light skin, but she inherited her mother's golden eyes. Takao, also my age, is blond with sea-green eyes. His skin is really pale, but he's quite muscular. Amy has black hair, with slightly darker skin than Riley or Rin. She's younger than me (and shorter), but she's really athletic.

After Riley upgraded my swords, we gathered around the table. "So Shin, what's your in-game name?" Riley asked. I shrugged "Pretty much my usual username. C'mon guys you remember we used to play RPG games right?" Riley grinned. "Of course I remember … Kai" he said slowly. I laughed. "I'm guessing you all used your usual usernames right? Riley's is Leon, Rin's is Claire, Takao's is Sylar, while Amy's is Lily." I quoted, and they nodded in confirmation.

"Are you going to the boss meeting today?" Takao asked, and I nodded. "Yup, along with Kazuto." I said. "Is he still being a loner? It was pretty depressing the last time we saw him." Amy asked. "Nope. Luckily, he's recovered, so before we got stuck here, he's been trying to repair his connections with the family." I replied. Then I checked the time. "Alright guys, I gotta get going. The meeting starts in 5 minutes." I rose from my seat, and so did they. "We're coming too." Rin stated.

"Alright. Let's go then." I said simply, and turned to leave. As we left the shop, I examined their weapons. I guess I'll start calling them by their in-game names. Leon had a two-handed sword strapped to his waist, along with some heavy armor to back it up. Claire had a dagger sheathed at the side of her arm, some light leather armor, and a copper breastplate. Takao carried a shield and a one-handed sword and some heavy armor. Lastly, Lily wore light leather armor and had a spear strapped to her back.

When we reached the amphitheater, I spotted Kirito seated in one of the seats. I pointed at him. "That's Kazuto, but in public, call him Kirito." I said, and the group nodded. I walked over to Kirito, and he turned. "Hey. What took you so long?" he asked, as I gave him his Anneal Blade. He equipped it, and I said "Old friends." He looked at them, nodded in hello, and we turned our attention to the guy in front.

 _ ***General PoV***_

A blue haired man stepped into the middle of the amphitheater. "Hello everyone! Thanks for coming. My name is Diavel, and my class specialization is a Knight!" Someone yelled "There's no class specialization in this game!" and everyone laughed. _That_ Kirito thought _was an effective ice breaker._ He looked around. He spotted Argo on the far side of the amphitheater, and a familiar red-hooded girl in the front. Kirito nudged Kai and pointed. "Well, look who decided to join the party…" he murmured.

"Alright, alright, alright! Do you want to listen or not?" Diavel shouted, and the laughing subsided. Diavel's expression turned serious. "Alright. Earlier today, my party found the boss room." Sounds of disbelief filled the air. Even Kirito and Kai's eyes widened in surprise. They haven't been able to locate the boss room themselves. Diavel raised his hands, and everyone grew silent. "We need to defeat the boss to unlock the second floor. It is our mission to do that, as we are the most capable players on this floor!" murmurs of agreement were heard from everywhere, and people had started clapping.

"Good!" said Diavel. "To defeat the boss we're going to need teams of six." Kirito and Kai were already partied with each other. Kai looked over at his other friends, but it seems that some people already requested to join their party. They grinned apologetically, and he sighed. Then a name appeared below Kirito's and Kai's.

 _Asuna_

Kai spun around and saw Kirito talking to the hooded girl. _Asuna huh?_ He thought. _That's a nice name._ He walked down the steps towards the pair. "Hey." Kai said "Didn't think you'd show up."

"Well, you did invite me here." Asuna replied

"Alright!" said Diavel. "Looks like you all teamed up. Now let's-"

"Hold up a sec!" someone ran forward, jumping over rows, and landed in front of the assembled players. Kai raised an eyebrow. This man looked like he had an orange cactus as hair. He thumped his chest. "My name's Kibaou you all got that?" He shouted. "Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest. We all know that 2000 people died so far, yeah? Well some of you need t apologize right now!" Kirito stiffened, while Kai glared at Kibaou. Both of them realized what he meant.

"Kibaou," Diavel said "Are you referring to the ex-beta testers?" Kibaou stepped forward. "Of course I mean them! They've abandoned us beginners since day one of this stupid-ass death game! I bet they took all the good hunting spots, and grabbed all the good quests too! They're the only ones getting stronger here." Kai shifted uneasily. He and Kirito did get good hunting spots and quests. Because they had done it in the beta. But they didn't took all of them.

"This whole time, they've ignored us like we're nothing but useless crap." Kibaou snarled "and I bet some of them are here! We should make 'em apologize, then make them fork over any money and the item's they've earned! They can't expect us to trust them if they don't trust us right? Come out Beta Testers!"

Then he spotted Kai. "Hey you!" he yelled, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You're a beta tester right? Look, his items are way more advanced than ours! Apologize and hand over your weapons now!"

Kai stood up and folded his arms. "And why should I do that?" he asked questioningly. "You know why! It's because you beta testers left us! Because of that, 2000 players died!" Kibaou snapped. Kai made his way down and glared at Kibaou. "So you blame the beta testers for those deaths, because we didn't help right?"

"Yeah, that's right." He growled Kai opened a menu and took out a small brown book. "You know what this is right?" Kibaou took one look at the book and grunted. "This item, the **Beginner's Handbook** was handed out for free from stores all around town. You got one right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Have you noticed who's been handing these out? The beta testers." Murmurs spread through the crowd, and some people started to pay more attention. Especially a specific figure with whisker marks on her cheeks. Kai turned to the crowd. "Can anyone tell me who wrote the 'Sword Skill' section?

A man stood up, and Kibaou gulped. The man was easily 6 feet tall, muscular, and had a large axe strapped to his back. "Kirito." He said, in a deep voice.

"Thanks, uh.."

"Agil" he supplied

"And the 'Quest info' section ?"

"Kai."

Kai gestured at Kirito, and he walked forwards, stopping beside Kai. Kibaou gaped at the twins for a while, before resuming his glaring. "Kirito and Kai, at your service." Kibaou's mouth fell open. The book has helped a lot of them in many situations. People whispered, staring at awe at the players before them. "We all had equal access to this information, yet people still died. Most cases were suicide or fatal mistakes. It's unfortunate, but you can't blame it on the beta testers. Not all gamers are very social, but there are a few willing to help. All you had to do was ask." Kai said. Then he stepped up in front of Kibaou.

"So once all that info has got through that unbelievably thick head of yours, and actually stayed on your shrimp-sized brain, If you have a brain, I suggest you put your ass back on the ground and shut that hell up. if you have any objections, get the fuck out. Got that you cactus-headed bird brain? How did you get the NerveGear on without breaking anything inside it with your hair like that anyway?" Not waiting for an answer, he whirled back, and both twins marched back to their seats. Kibaou himself stormed off to take his seat.

"Right." Diavel said "for info on the boss, it's in here. the latest version of the guide book that Kai had talked about. According to the book, the boss's name is **Illfang the Kobold Lord.** He has 4 health bars, and he'll be aided by Ruin Kobold Sentinels." He closed the book. "Apparently in the beta, Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. When his last health bar falls to the red zone, he switches his weapon with a sword called a Talwar. His attacks can change, too."

Outbreaks of whispers burst all over the crowd. Ignoring them, Diavel merely raised his hand for silence. "That's all for the briefing. For distribution of the loot we get, money will be divided equally. The party that kills the boss will keep the EXP and items. Any objections?" Nobody said a thing. "Good. We leave at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Meeting adjourned."

Asuna left immediately, and Kai sighed. "Mind if I stay a while? I need a word with my friends." Kirito nodded and left.

 _ ***Kai's PoV***_

Man, that guy was pissing me off!

He makes it sound like we beta testers aren't in danger at all! Plus, no one actually came to me and Kirito to ask for help except Klein, so it didn't seem like anyone needed help. Why couldn't they just come, ask for help, a little 'Please' and 'Th- Why are Leon and the others staring at me like that?

"Oi Kai! You didn't tell us you were a beta tester!" Leon yelled from across the amphitheater.

Shit! Did he have to holler about that? Now every eye is trained on me, and… oh fuck it.

I gestured at my friends to come closer. The moment they did, I smacked Leon on the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" he complained, rubbing the back of his head. "For attracting attention, idiot. Don't you realize everyone here either wants to ask for help or actually frickin _murder_ me?" I hissed out that murder part. At least 10 percent of those people were looking at me with venom in their eyes. I could tell they were angry because of what Kibaou had said. Well, who cares what they think I live my own life.

"Say, why didn't you tell us you were a beta tester?" Lily asked. I shrugged. "None of you asked, obviously." Sylar rolled his eyes. "Oh, Kai and his typical logic." He chuckled. "I've missed that." I couldn't help but grin. I missed all of them terribly. Claire tapped Leon's shoulder. "Well, are we going to stand here all day, or are we going to leave?" I looked around. Most of the people who had attended the meeting had left already, leaving Diavel, Cactus-head, me, and my friends.

"Alright. I just want to make sure of something." I looked up at my friends. "Do you guys hate me now? I mean, I didn't tell you, and-"

"Of course not!" Claire said, looking surprised by my question. " Why would we hate you? You're our friend. We won't hate you just because you're a beta tester" I smiled. That was a relief. I was worried that they'd be angry. "Besides," Leon grinned "You put up quite a show."

Lily snickered. "Especially the 'cactus-headed bird brain' part. That was hilarious." We shared a laugh, and for a moment, it was like the good old times. I clapped my hands together. "Right! So I'll see you guys tomorrow for the boss raid?" Sylar frowned. "Wait, you're not coming with us?" I shook my head. As much as I wanted to, Kazu-Kirito was waiting for me. "Nah, I'm staying with my brother. I'll keep in touch." As I turned to leave, Claire grabbed my shoulder. "Take care of yourself ok? If you need help, don't hesitate to ask. "Yeah!" Leon agreed. "Don't be a stranger!" didn't I just say I'll be in touch? Ah, well. I gave them a thumbs up and left.

I found Kirito waiting for me near the exit. "Everything alright?" he asked, and I nodded. "All good." And with that, we walked away from the amphitheater.

So, yeah. I reached level 14, upgraded my sword, gained a new ally (If you're wondering who it is, it's the mysterious hooded girl a.k.a Asuna), found my friends, joined in a boss raid plan, and word-punched a certain bastard. Oh hey, so there's where Asuna went, sitting on a bench, eating bread, and looking depressed. Well, might as well go there and chit-chat.

I just hope the boss fight would end well.

 **Surprise, surprise! There are 4 more OCs! So, with Kai, there are a total of 5 OCs! I know, I know. I said I'd only put 2 OCs, but this will have a MASSIVE impact on Kai's side of the story later on. And I'm pretty sure you guys will like it.**

 **Anyways, I'm finally done with my final tests! WOO! But unfortunately, I'm not out of the woods just yet. I still have to face the possible "Fails-and-Retests" Sessions, so don't expect daily work.**

 **I noticed many new people had liked and followed my story now! To be honest, I didn't expect more than 15 to follow, since this is my first fanfic. But hey, thanks for all your support! If any of you have suggestions, please send me a PM or give me a review! I'll give your ideas a thought.**

 **Many thanks for those who read, liked, and followed. It means a lot to me. Look forward to my next chapter! If any of you are disappointed in some parts of the story, or has a problem with it, tell me and I'll re-upload it.**

 **I'll see YOU, in the next chapter.**

 **Sincerely,**

 _ **Last Step**_


	6. Illfang Goes POOF!

**Hey, welcome back! Sorry for the 'lack of battle action' in the previous chapter. This one is gonna be filled with it. Sorry it took a long time for me to update. I didn't have a good week.. something about 'unsatisfactory scores'. Also,** ** _TheSilentSwordsman_** **suggested to me to make Kai's main color white instead of blue, and let him have light weapons instead of heavy ones. Now I know most of you think Kai's gonna have more or less the same skill set and stats as Kirito. Now let me clarify a few things.**

 **Kirito is a Strength-Agility type fighter. Kai is an Agility-Strength fighter. What's the difference? Kirito focuses more on 'Strength' while Kai focuses more on 'Agility'. This explains Kai's choice of skill upgrades in Chapter one, 'Sprint' and 'Acrobatics'. Kai focuses more on 'Acrobatics' so he can complete the gaps in Kirito's Combo, kinda like how Asuna's combat style matches Kirito's.**

 **Kai will NOT get 'Dual Wielding'. I know their twins, but Kirito's gonna have the higher reaction time. Kai will get something much more… diffrent**

 **Kai's main color is blue because of a reason. I'm not going to spoil it now, but you'll understand sooner or later.**

 **Yes, Kirito's swords are heavier than Kai's**

 **Anyways, enough talk. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Illfang goes POOF!**

 _Oh hey, so there's where Asuna went, sitting on a bench, eating bread, and looking depressed. Well, might as well go there and chit-chat._

 _I just hope the boss fight would end well._

 ** _*General PoV*_**

Asuna held a bread roll in her hands. It wasn't much, considering it's the cheapest food in the area. It was bland and hard, and it would take several hard chews before it would be swallow able. Nevertheless, it would be enough to substitute for a meal.

"It's pretty good isn't it?"

She turned to the source of the voice to see Kirito standing there, grinning slightly, with Kai standing beside him. "Mind if we join you?" He asked. "If you're comfortable about it." Kai added, smiling good-naturedly.

"You may, if you want." Asuna replied softly. The twins sat down on the bench, Kirito closest to Asuna. Asuna realized how close Kirito was, and hastily shifted further away from him. Kirito didn't seem to notice, but Kai glanced at her and snickered. She glared at him harshly, but Kai ignored it as both he and Kirito pulled out their own bread rolls. She eyed them for a while before looking at Kirito. "Do you really think that this tastes good?"

"Yeah. We've eaten at least one a day ever since we arrived in this town." He replied. "Although," Kai added, "we 'switch it up' sometimes." Asuna frowned in confusion. "Switch it up?" She repeated curiously, and Kirito smiled slightly before pulling out a small brown jar and placing it between them. "Put some of this on the bread. You'll see what I mean."

She hesitated. Seeing this, Kirito tapped the top of the jar with his finger, and it started glowing white. He slowly ran it over his bread roll, and cream covered where he touched. Seeing this, Asuna followed his example, tapping the top of the jar before running her finger over the bread. She blinked in surprise as cream appeared on her bread.

"Cream?" she said softly. Kai took the jar and repeated the process on his bread roll. "It's not poison you know." Kai said, as he glanced over at a hesitating Asuna, before taking a bite. Blushing slightly in embarrassment, she lifted it to her mouth and took a small bite. Her eyes widened as a rush of flavor entered her mouth. It's good! Really, really, good! She finished the rest of the bread in 5 seconds flat and let out a content sigh, a soft smile on her lips.

Kai stared at her, stunned. She finished it before they were halfway done! Kirito, on the other hand continued talking. "It came from a quest called 'The Heifer Strikes Back', at the last town. I can show you, if you'd like." He offered. Asuna shook her head, her smile fading. "No, thank you. I didn't come to this town to eat good food." She said.

"Well, why did you then?" Kirito asked questioningly. "So I can be myself. I would rather fight till the end than sit and rot in fear in an inn in the first town. Even if I get killed, I don't want to lose to this world." She replied, her voice steely.

"Jesus, there you go again, sounding so terribly depressed." Kai huffed "It's okay to be yourself, but don't think no one would care if you died. You have a family don't you? What do you think they'll think if you die?" Asuna didn't respond. Sighing, he stood up. "I'm gonna go back to the house and take a bath. You guys can continue talking, or buy something. See y-HEY!" Asuna had stood up and rushed over so fast, no one saw her move. Holding Kai by the collars of his shirt, she spoke to him in a harsh and somewhat desperate tone. "What did you just say?"

"Uh.. Go buy something?" Kai answered hesitantly

"Before that!" she snapped.

"You guys can talk?"

"Before that!"

"I'm gonna take a bath?"

Silence

"You… have a bath?" Asuna whispered, her voice laced with jealousy.

"Y-yes?" Kai stuttered.

Then he realized what she wanted. "Y-you can use it if you want?" he said without thinking, just desperate to be released. He was starting to suffocate. "I can?" she said, and her eyes lit up. "Sure." Kai said, and she let go. "Alright!" she exclaimed, clearly excited. Kirito chuckled and Kai smiled, despite being nearly choked to death.

 _'Well, at least she isn't depressed anymore_ ' Kai thought, rubbing his throat where the collars were pressing against. Then a thought occurred to him. ' _But…why does it hurt?'_

 ** _*Kai's PoV*_**

It wasn't supposed to hurt.

When we first played this game, any injury we get would only feel a little uncomfortable, thanks to the 'Pain Absorption' system. Normally, it's set to 8. If it's reduced to 4, you feel pain. If it's 3 or lower, it can affect your body in real life. Maybe the 'Pain Absorption' system was turned off when the game started? Maybe I didn't realize it because… well, I almost never got hurt so far, and neither had Kirito. I think I'll discuss this with Kirito later.

We walked back to our place. It's…well, it's technically not a room, yet it's not our house. We rented the entire second floor of a Farmhouse. Yes, a farmhouse. People usually rent inn rooms, but in the beta, it turns out you can rent some facilities like these. May not look like much, but you can get free milk, a bathroom, and some very comfortable beds. It's WAY better than any of the cheap inns in town. But the problem was..

"What do you mean there's only one bathroom?!" Asuna yelled as I pointed that out.

"Well, it's not like we're gonna take a peek." Kirito mumbled. She glared harshly at this. "You better not! If you dare.." I shivered at the bloodlust in that voice. Something tells us she meant business. "Alright! We won't! Go ahead and take your bath." I said quickly. She took on last glare at the pair of us before slipping into the bathroom.

Thank god not all women are like her. If stares could kill, I would've already been waving down from heaven.

Right! Back to business. 'Pain Absorption' system discussion.

I turned to Kirito. "Hey Kirito, there's something I want to talk about." He looked at me. "What?" Before I could say anything else, a knock came from the door. I sighed. Kirito walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a grinning Argo.

"Hey Argo. What's up?" Kirito greeted, and Argo walked in the room. "The client who wants to buy your sword upped his offer." Really? This is like, what? His fourth attempt? "How much?" I asked. She flopped onto a nearby couch, and flipped upside-down so that her feet were hanging of the back and her head was on the edge. "39,800 col. Quite overpriced if you ask me." My jaw dropped. That was.. that was a lot. "Wah? There's no way it's worth that much." Kirito said.

Argo shrugged. Heh. It's looks weird when she's upside down. "That's what I told them."

He looked at me, and I shook my head. "We're way to close to the boss raid. We won't be able to find a decent sword for you if you do. Plus," I looked at Argo. "I'm guessing that the person who wanted to buy this sword is someone we don't like." Argo grinned. "You catch on fast! You're right though. I can tell you for 3000 col only!" I crossed my arms. "1000." "Ooo, bargaining are we? Let's see, 2500 Col."

"1300"

"2100"

"1500"

"1750"

"Deal." and I transferred the money. Argo smiled. "Wow, you're good at bargaining! I could use you sometimes…" something about her tone made me uneasy… "Anyway, the one who wants to buy your sword happens to be that cactus-headed bird brain you spoke with earlier, Kai."

I face-palmed. "are all people talking about it?" I groaned, and she laughed. "Well, you did make a good show, plus, beta testers need someone to stand up for them." She put an upside-down military salute before turning to Kirito. "So I guess you're not selling this time too?" Kirito nodded, and Argo slid of the couch, standing up. "Well then, I'll be going. Before I go, can I use your bathroom?" Kirito nodded without thinking, before remembering something.

Oh crap! Asuna was in there!

"Hey, wait." He started to say, but Argo had already slipped inside.

 _Oooooooooooooooh Great._

There was a surprised shout, a piercing scream, and the door slammed open. Asuna (fortunately fully clothed) flew out the door and slammed into Kirito, sending them both to the floor. Kirito's head hit the floor. Hard. And…oh my god the position they were in…Kirito's face was buried under…

Oh I am _so_ dead.

Well, I don't remember much from that except from seeing Asuna rushing at me, and…

Face, meet Asuna's foot.

 ** _*General PoV*_**

Kai practically flew across the room and landed on the floor, knocked out cold. With both twins unconscious, she left the room quickly, and Argo had the bathroom all to herself.

 _A few moments later._

"Uuugh." Kirito groaned, sitting up. he didn't know what happened. The last thing he remembered was something soft pressed against his face before blacking out. Then he spotted Kai and quickly rushed over.

"Kai! You OK?"

"Guh.. I'm fine…"

Kai sat up, rubbing his face. "What happened?" Kirito asked him. Kai raised his face to look at Kirito, and he flinched. "What do you think?" "Like… like you've been stepped on." Kirito said hesitantly, and Kai sighed.

"Close, but no. after Argo went in the bathroom, Asuna rushed out and slammed into you, and the both of you slammed to the ground, knocking you out. Then she rushed at me and slammed her foot to my face." Kirito stared at his twin, who now had a footprint on his face. "You should probably wash that off."

"Right."

Kai got up and walked over to the bathroom. "Hey Kai?" Kirito asked, and Kai turned "What?"

"Why does it hurt?"

"Ah, that. I think Kayaba turned off the 'Pain Absorption' system after the death game started, and we didn't notice because we never took serious damage." And with that, he slipped into the bathroom. ' _This is bad.'_ Kirito thought _'If the Pain receptors are off, that means-'_

"WHAT THE-"

"EEP!"

"GAH! MY EYES!"

BANG!

Kai had rushed out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut, putting his back against it. His face was beet red, and his eyes were shut. "ARGO!" he yelled. "EXACTLY HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THERE?!"

"About 30 minutes!" came a reply. "Can I come out now?"

Kai moved away from the door and it opened, revealing a slightly red faced (and now fully clothed) Argo.

Kirito sighed. "So…what did you see?" Kai shook his head, his hands covering his eyes. "Something that will scar me for life." He muttered. Argo huffed. "Aw c'mon, you did that on purpose!"

"I did not! I had no idea you were still here!"

"Riiight~"

 _'This will be a long night..'_ Kirito thought.

 ** _* December 3rd, 2022*_**

 ** _*1_** ** _st_** ** _Floor forest dungeon*_**

 ** _*Kai's PoV*_**

We walked in the far back of the raiding party. We got grouped up in Group E, whose job is to keep the **[Ruin Kobold Sentinels]** off the rest of the group. Kirito was talking to Asuna. "Let's go over the plan again." For the 4th time (I counted). "We're the backup, so we take care of the boss' minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels."

"I know." She sounded bored. I didn't blame her. "I'll use a Sword Skill to knock their weapons up. When I do, Switch and jump in." O-kay! Slightly different wording! I'm pretty sure he didn't say 'Switch' the first three-

"What's a Switch?"

What.

We stopped dead in our tracks

"Is this your first time in a party?" I asked, and she nodded. Great, apparently we're stuck with someone who doesn't know how to fight in a party. "A switch takes advantage when a monster's guard is shifted. It leaves openings, and that's when other party members attack." Kirito explained.

She nodded. "That makes sense." Then she continued walking, following the rest of the raid party. I shook my head, waiting for Kirito to catch up. "I really don't know if she hates us, or she's just plain quiet."

"Yeah." He replied. "And she never takes that cloak off either. I wonder…" we stayed silent for the rest of the journey. Before long, we arrived in front of a gigantic door. Diavel stood in front. "Listen up, everyone. I've only got one thing to say to you: Let's win!" he looked around the room, looking at the determined faces in the party. For some reason, his eyes seemed to linger on Kirito and me. "Let's go." He opened the door, and everyone rushed into the room. For a moment, all they could see was a row of columns, stretching into the shadows.

Then a pair of gleaming red eyes shone from the other side of the room. I tensed. The room suddenly lit up in bright pastel colors, and the monster soared through the air, landing a few meters in front of us. When the dust cleared, I could see a Very, very big red monster, carrying an axe and a buckler. It had a dog-like face, and was very, very fat.

To sum that all up, it was very, very, UGLY!

4 health bars filled, it's name showing **[Illfang The Kobold Lord].** Ruin Kobold Sentinels were summoned, each around 2 meters tall, carrying maces. "Well, looks like the info was right." Kibaou muttered.

You don't say.

Diavel drew his sword and pointed it at Illfang. "Commence the attack!"

And we charged forward to battle.

 ***General PoV***

The battle quickly turned into chaos. Diavel was shouting out orders to the groups from the rear. Illfang's health depleted slowly, and so no casualties had occurred. "Squads D, E, and F, keep those sentinels off us!" He shouted.

"You got it!" "Understood!" came shouts of reply from Kirito and Kai respectively, as they charged the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, Asuna right behind them. Kirito parried an overhead strike from a Kobold, and put it off balance. "Switch!" he yelled, and Asuna rushed in. ' _And I thought she was a novice.'_ Kirito thought. ' _Her speed and dexterity are so high, I can't see her blade!'_ In a matter of seconds, the mob had been stabbed in multiple paces, and it exploded into polygons.

Kai rushed the next minion, slamming his mace away, and switching out so Kirito could land the finishing blow. The cycle continued for a while, and the attacking group continued to deplete Illfang's HP. After a while, the fourth health bar turned red. Illfang let out a roar, and threw his weapons to the side.

"Stand back! I got this!" Diavel shouted, rushing forward. Kirito glanced at him in surprise. ' _We're supposed to surround it and attack it as a group! What the hell is he doing?'_ As if he had sensed Kirito watching, Diavel turned his head slightly and smirked at Kirito. Then he was standing before the boss, his sword shining with a gold light of a sword skill.

Illfang looked down at Diavel, almost in contempt, and drew it's sword that was slung on it's back, holding it to the side. Looking at the weapon, Kai gasped and Kirito cursed. _'That's not a Talwar. It's a Nodachi! It's changed from the beta! He'll get himself killed!'_

"No! GET BACK! Jump back as fast as you can!" he yelled, catching Kibaou's attention, but Diavel ignored him and charged the boss. But before Diavel could get in range, Illfang jumped, bouncing from pillar to pillar and smashed into the ground, it's sword glowing purple and slashing across Diavel's chest. As Diavel flew into the air from the force of the hit, the boss slashed at him again, sending his body to the other side of the room.

"DIAVEL!" Kibaou screamed, but before anyone could rush over and help, Illfang landed in the midst of the group, forcing the group back into battle. "Diavel! Kai, Asuna, Cover us!" Kirito yelled, running to the swordsman and kneeled next to him. He pulled out a health potion and tried to hand it to Diavel. "Why did you go in alone?"

"You were…a beta tester weren't you?" Diavel said, his words tight with pain as he pushed the potion away. His health was falling too quickly, and he knew it was too late. "You know what I was doing then.."

"The last attack bonus." Kirito said, realizing what this meant. "You were a beta tester too?" He nodded in response. Diavel then turned his head slightly too look at the battling players. "Please… Defeat…defeat the boss….for everyone…" And he shattered into blue polygons, fading into nothingness.

 _'Diavel…you were a beta tester, but you never abandoned the beginners. You led everyone, and fought brilliantly! You did what I couldn't-no-wouldn't do! I...i won't let you die in vain!'_ Rising to his feet, Kirito picked up his sword, turning towards the boss. In a flash, Asuna and Kai were at his side, weapons at the ready.

"I'll go too." Asuna said, her voice filled with determination. "I'm right behind you." Kai said. "Alright, Asuna, Kai, we're going in. We'll use the same tactics as we did the Sentinels. Understood?" both of them nodded. Then all three charged forward. The boss' first strike was parried by Kirito, then Asuna followed up with her barrage of Sword strikes. Illfang's sword suddenly glowed as it activated a sword skill, and cleaved down at her. "Asuna!" Kai yelled in warning, and she dodged, narrowly missing her. But the cloak Asuna was wearing was shredded. Kirito stared at her. Asuna's hair was revealed to be a smooth chestnut color, matching her eyes perfectly. Her lips curled in a faint snarl as she unleashed **'Linear'** , sending the boss flying. She landed a her feet, staring at the boss.

The boss' roar and thundering footsteps snapped Kirito back from his staring. "He's coming back!" he yelled, and he readied his sword. The trio met the boss's charge, blocking and striking the boss. Then, when Asuna landed another heavy blow at the boss, it activated the same sword skill that he had used earlier. However, Kirito dashed in and knocked away the sword. Then Illfang feinted a strike and blew Kirito backwards, dealing heavy damage. He crashed into Asuna, and both of them fell to the ground.

"Kirito! Asuna!" Kai yelled, rushing towards them. Kirito tried to get up, but he was frozen by the system. Asuna had gotten up, but barely. Illfang leapt over to them, bringing his sword down, and Asuna lifted her rapier in a vain attempt to block the attack.

"HRAH!"

Illfang's attack was countered by a large axe, held by Agil, the large dark-skinned man from the boss raid meeting. Kai reached his friend, and he looked over. "We'll hold this thing off. You guys back off and heal up. Kirito muttered a word of thanks, limping away with Asuna's help. Kai stayed next to Agil. "I'll stay. I can help hold big ugly." Agil chuckled, and they charged, the rest of the raiding party following.

Kai glanced back at Kirito and Asuna, before focusing on the boss. As soon as Kirito and Asuna reached a safe distance from the boss, both of them downed a health potion, and the pain faded. Suddenly, Illfang used an Area attack, knocking every single player away from it. It jumped into the air, and activated a 2-hit sword skill, aiming for both Agil and Kai.

"Watch out!" Kirito yelled, activating **'Sonic Leap'** , lunging off the ground and blocking it's first attack. Then Illfang swung his sword sideways, but Kai was already there, sword in a reverse-grip and blocked that attack too. "You're going down!" both of them yelled, and they activated sword skills to fling Illfang to the ground. Kirito and Kai landed on their feet, and started charging. "C'mon, Asuna! Kai! One last attack!" In a flash, Asuna was there. "You got it!" Kai scoffed "As if you'd need to ask!"

Illfang stood up and attacked, but Kirito knocked it aside. Kai rushed in, his sword still held in reverse grip as he jumped to the monster's face, spinning in the air and stabbed it's eye. Then he flipped the sword and spun once more, blocking an incoming attack from Illfang as Asuna rushed in and stabbed it in the stomach.

Then Kai leapt into the air again, with Kirito rushing from below, slicing in a perfect 'X' each from hip to shoulder. Yet, they were not finished. Retracing the X, both twins roared in fury, sending the boss flying in mid-air. Illfang's body glowed a brilliant white, before exploding into a million blue polygons.

It was over.

They had won.

The Congratulations screen blazed in front of all of them, and the raiding party erupted into cheers, celebrating their victory. Glancing at their screens, both Kirito and Kai realized, that they both had received the 'Last Attack Bonus'.

On Kirito's screen, it was:

 _Congratulations!_

 _You have received the Last Attack Bonus!_

 _Obtained:_

 _Cloak of Midnight_

On Kai's screen, it was:

 _Congratulations!_

 _You have received the Last Attack Bonus!_

 _Obtained:_

 _Cape of Neptune_

Agil walked up to the trio. "That was some fine swordsmanship, all of you. Congratulations." He looked at both Kirito and Kai. "Today's victory is all thanks to you two."

"N-no…" Kirito said weakly, trying to deny it.

"We couldn't have done it without you guys too." Kai said, but the players had started clapping and cheering.

"Yeah!"

"You guys were Awesome!"

"Great job!"

Kirito and Kai smiled as the raid party celebrated and applauded. Leon, Clair, Sylar, and Lily had rushed forwards to Kai.

"That was wicked!" Leon yelled.

"Nicely done!" Lily said.

"You did great." Sylar put in.

But before Claire could say anything, Kibaou's voice rang through the hall. "Stop cheering!" every head turned to see Kibaou, who was kneeling on the floor, his party members around him. "Why? Why'd you let Diavel die?!"

Kirito looked over, confused. "Let him die? What do you mean?" Kibaou looked up towards him, his face full of anger and anguish. "That's what I said. Admit it! You two knew the boss' attack pattern. You could have told us! Then Diavel wouldn't have died!" The mood turned ugly. Everyone (Except Asuna, Agil, Leon, Sylar, Claire, and Lily.) started muttering and glancing at the twins, none of them having good expressions on them.

"Is that true?" Leon whispered, and Kai shook his head slightly. "Things changed from the beta. The type of sword, the sword skills, the boss' last attack patterns. It wasn't the same." Leon nodded and passed it over to the rest of the gang, but before they could speak up, one of Kibaou's friends stepped forward. "They're beta testers aren't they? It's not surprising they let him die. Those selfish bastards just wanted all the glory!" he pointed at the group. "I bet they're not the only ones here too! C'mon, beta testers! Show yourselves!"

It was a chaos. Every player from the raid were looking at each other with distrust, though Kai noticed some of their eyes held fear behind the façade of their calm faces. The other beta testers. Kai glanced at Kirito. "Whatever you're planning Kirito, let's do it." He murmured, and Kirito nodded, whispering the plan in his ear. Agil and Asuna had walked over to Kibaou to try and talk it out, but before any of them could say anything, Kirito started laughing. It was a cold laugh, a dangerous one, sending chills through everyone's spines.

"So you guys think we're beta testers?" Kirito said, his laughter fading. "Don't insult us like that."

Kibaou was stunned. "What'd you say?"

"Yeah, that's right." Kai said, shooting a quick warning glance at his friends before fixing a smug expression on his face. "Don't compare us with those noobs. Those people were so green, you guys are better than them." Kai looked at their faces. "But us? We're different." The ones who he had identified as beta testers had realized what they were trying to do, and the look in their eyes showed gratefulness and respect.

Kirito smirked "We knew about the boss because we fought way more monsters on the higher floors. We know more things than you can imagine. More than any info broker." Kai flinched slightly, thinking about how a certain whiskered friend would react to that.

"Wh…What?!" Kibaou stammered "Forget about being a beta tester, you guys are much worse! You're cheaters!" Angry shouts and Insults were directed to the duo, ignoring the protests of Asuna, Agil, and the others. A certain word caught Kirito's ears.

"A Beater. Yeah, I like that." And both twins opened their menus. "Alright then, call us Beaters. Just make sure you don't confuse us for beta testers anymore." He selected the 'Cloak of Midnight', and a black leather cloak fell over his shoulders. Kai selected his, and a dark blue hooded cape with a picture of a crossed sword and trident (Imagine a dark blue version of the hooded capes in _Attack on Titan, with that picture in the back)_ appeared on his shoulders. Then both Kai and Kirito turned, walking up the steps to the door leading to the second floor.

Asuna raced up the steps, stopping them just before they opened the door. "Wait!" Both Kirito and Kai stopped and turned. "When we were fighting the boss, you called me by my name."

"I wasn't trying to be rude." Kirito said. "Or did I mess up the pronunciation?"

"How'd you even know it?"

Kai sighed. "At the top left of your sight, there should be health bars of people in the same party. We saw it there." She turned her whole head to get a better look. Kai face-palmed and Kirito sighed. He took a step towards her and held her cheek with his hand so that her head would stay still. "Just move your eyes." He said. "It'll move with you if you move your whole head like that."

Asuna blushed slightly, glancing down at his hand. Kirito realized it, and put his hand down hastily, taking a few steps back towards Kai. This time, Asuna moved her eyes. "Kirito… and Kai…" she looked back at them. "Are those your names?" They nodded, and Asuna started giggling. Kai smiled slightly. ' _It's better when she's smiling.'_

 _"_ I'm so dumb" she said. "It was there the whole time, and I never knew." Kirito turned around and faced the door. "You can become strong here on your own, Asuna. But if the day comes when someone invites you to join a guild, don't turn it down. There are limits to what solo players can do." He said.

Asuna frowned again. "But what about you?"

Kirito had started walking towards the door, and Kai sighed internally, shaking his head. ' _Why does he always have to be so cold?'_ he turned to Asuna. "Don't worry about us." He said. "We're Beaters right? We know our way around. Well, until the tenth floor, that is." She looked at Kirito. "Is he…" Kai rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "Ah, sorry. He's not so good with people. He's more of a loner, but if you're close to him, he's a really nice person." Then he stepped forward towards Asuna and held out a hand. "You're strong, Asuna. I'm sure we'll see you again. Until then, this is goodbye." Asuna took his hand and shook it, a smile returning to her face. "Alright then, keep yourselves alive alright?"

Kai chuckled. "You know what? You look much better when you're smiling. You should smile more than frowning." She laughed lightly, letting go of his hand. "Alright then." Kai turned to leave, then stopped. Turning once more to Asuna, he fiddled with his menu. A small window appeared in front of Asuna.

 _Player '_ _ **Kai**_ _' would like to be your friend!_

 _Accept?_

 _Yes/No_

"So I know you're alive." Kai said, grinning. Asuna clicked 'Yes', and he turned, catching up to Kirito. Silently, the twins opened the door to the next floor, taking the hate of the players with them.

 **Aaaand Done! This Chapter sure was long! i'll have the next chapter come in soon, so don't give up reading just yet. I'd like to thank** ** _Death467d, Andeloth, and TheSilentSwordsman_** **for your suggestions, and thanks everyone for your support! I enjoy writing all this! Please, if you have any suggestions or disatisfactions, tell me by reviewing, and I'll see to it.**

 **I'll give you a few stats now.**

 **Kirito**

 **Level: 14**

 **Skills:**

 ** _Hiding_**

 ** _Blade Throwing_**

 ** _Parry_**

 ** _One Handed Sword_**

 ** _Sprint_**

 ** _Extended weight limit_**

 ** _Searching_**

 **Weapon:**

 **Anneal Blade (+8)**

 ** _Class: One-Handed Sword_**

 ** _Type: Slash_**

 ** _ATK: 22-30_**

 ** _Durability: 220_**

 ** _Requirements: Lvl.5_**

 ** _Boosts: Strength +10 Agility +6_**

 **Armor:**

 **Coat of Midnight**

 ** _Durability: 200_**

 ** _Boosts: Hiding +10_**

 **Friends List:**

 ** _Kai_**

 ** _Klein_**

 ** _Argo_**

 **Kai**

 **Level: 14**

 **Skills:**

 ** _Hiding_**

 ** _Acrobatics (MAX)_**

 ** _Sprint (MAX)_**

 ** _Searching_**

 ** _One Handed Sword_**

 ** _Familiar Communication_**

 ** _Musical Instrument_**

 **Weapon:**

 **Cobalt Striker (+14)**

 ** _Class: One-Handed Sword_**

 ** _Type: Slash_**

 ** _ATK: 30-35_**

 ** _Durability: 340_**

 ** _Requirements: none_**

 ** _Boosts: Agility +15 Strength +7_**

 **Equipment:**

 **Cape of Neptune**

 ** _Durability: 200_**

 ** _Boosts: Hiding +5, Agility +5_**

 **Friends List:**

 ** _Kirito_**

 ** _Klein_**

 ** _Argo_**

 ** _Leon_**

 ** _Claire_**

 ** _Sylar_**

 ** _Lily_**

 ** _Asuna_**

 **That's all! Thanks for reading!**


	7. Martial Maniacs

**Hi! Thanks for the corrections from** ** _Yaksher._** **I had no idea that Kirito maxed the 'One-Handed Sword' on the 50** **th** **floor. Sooo, I decided to edit that part out. So, I only specify** ** _what_** **stats they have. And don't say that they can't have too much skill slots. Take that as a part of an advantage from being a beta tester, along with the extra 2 items and skill points. I also added a Friends List Section. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, look at the last Author's Note in the previous chapter. Yeah, I know I made some mistakes, but I corrected that. Also, sorry for the long wait. I had to go on some camping trip, and I'm wasn't allowed to bring my laptop. Anyway, let's get to the chapter shall we?**

 **Chapter 6**

 **Martial Maniacs**

 ** _* December 3rd, 2022*_**

 ** _*2_** ** _nd_** ** _Floor*_**

 ** _*Kai's PoV*_**

Wait what?

How about no? I did most of the story telling in the last one. Why not involve Kazuto hmm?

 _But-_

Shut up Narrator, I didn't ask for your opinion

 _But I-_

Don't. Say. A word

 _I-_

What did I just tell you?

 _Hey!_

Alright! Muting the Narrator!

 _'BLOCK'_

 _…._

That's better! Aaand Switch!

 ***Kirito's PoV***

…Okay. That was weird. But I guess I'll start then.

Well, here we are. The 2nd floor of Aincrad. The view was pretty straightforward actually. Grass fields, mountains, a dirt path, and a town. That's where we were headed. To activate the portal gate to this floor, we have to make it to the center of the closest town, Urbus. Fortunately, no monsters are able to near the dirt path. If it did, the trip would take…about 5 minutes longer? Yeah. More or less 5 minutes. Actually, forget the 'more'. 5 minutes max.

So Kai and I started walking to Urbus. I didn't say anything, to be honest. I thought about what Kibaou said. If I did say it was a Nodachi, would Diavel have listened? Would he still be alive right now? Maybe. Maybe I should've warned him. Does that make his death my-

"It's not your fault."

What? I looked at Kai. "What are you-"

"Diavel." He looked at me. "His death wasn't your fault."

"How do you know?" I asked. "If I told him that it was a Nodachi, maybe he could've survived."

"You gave him a warning." He retorted. "You yelled at him to get back. It was his own ego that killed him. If he listened to you and jumped back, he could've survived." He punched my shoulder lightly. "So don't you dare blame yourself, Kazuto."

I thought about it. He was right, of course. I _did_ warn him. "I guess so.." I said slowly, and then I shook my head. "I'll be alright." We continued to walk silently before a question popped in my head. "Hey Shin?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you add Asuna to your friends list?"

He looked at me curiously. "Why do you ask? Is it wrong?" Ah, right. The 'answer a question with a question' time. "It's just...we're Beaters right? If we get to close to other people, they could be thought as beaters too." He nodded once. "Well, it's not as if I'm partying with her is it? She just seemed like a good person, and she's skillful with that rapier." Then he added something under his breath. "What was that?" I asked. "Nothing." He replied innocently. Then a thought struck me. "Do you like her?"

"As a friend?"

"No, more than that."

"Best friend?"

"More."

"BFFs?"

I smacked my head in frustration. Was it really that hard? "No, I meant like-attracted to her."

He laughed. "No, I have a feeling she's got the hots on you actually."

Wait what? "What makes you say that?" I asked, and he looked at me mischievously. "Where do I start?" he said, putting a hand to his chin, as if he were in deep thought.

"First, when you sat on the bench next to her, she shifted away hastily, as if embarrassed or shy." Really? I didn't remember that. "Second, when Illfang struck you, instead of dodging and saving herself, she stood her ground and tried to defend you didn't she?" That's true, but isn't that because we agreed to not let our party members die? "And lastly," he paused for a dramatic affect. "She blushed when you held her cheek to show her the HUD right?" Oh. Maybe of…embarrassment?

"Nah, I'm sure that's not it. We agreed not let anyone die in our party right? And I'm pretty sure she's just embarrassed when I held her cheek." Kai just grinned. Why is he grinning?! "Alright then. Whatever you say." The rest of the trip passed in silence.

We finally reached the town 3 minutes later (took a small detour to check out the 2nd floor mobs. One of the common mobs are **'Wild Vespids'** , Larger and more dangerous than the first floor wasps.) and the 'Safe Area' floated into my vision. Kai turned to me. "Do you want to activate it now?"

I thought about it. "I guess,.." We will have to activate it, but… "But if we do, people will come through and after what we just did, I don't think they'll be happy to see us."

Kai sighed. "Let's find an escape route, then." I nodded. If we were going to do this, we'll need to find a way out fast. Let's see. The gate was in the middle of a clearing, so there was a lot of space for people to spread out. The exits were too far too run too, and we would be easily seen on the roof. Plus, we can't exactly sick around to say hi. Wait, what about..

"How about that abandoned church over there?" I suggested, pointing at it with my finger. The church was large, tall, and the windows were large enough for a quick getaway if necessary. "We should be safe if we hide out in the steeple." Kai nodded. "It should work." Then he smirked "Just pray that there aren't any ghost-type mobs in them." Really? "You play way to much horror games." He shrugged. "I love the suspense." Then he grew serious. "If we manage to get up on the roof fast enough, we should be covered. Screw up, we're done for."

I grinned. "Sounds like fun though, right?" he grinned back. "Yup. Now let's hurry up or they're gonna go through that door instead." I nodded. The players could get impatient. "Ready?" he asked, and when I said 'yes', he touched the center of the stone arch, and a ripple spread out in the air, as if it was water. A bright light flashed, and it had a transparent blue field between the arches. An announcement sounded.

 ** _'Players can now go to Urbus town, 2_** ** _nd_** ** _floor.'_**

"RUN!" I yelled out, and we took off, running to a lower building before jumping up to the roof. We continued running from there, jumping from roof to roof. Actually, I was jumping. Kai was doing some parkour with his 'Acrobatics' skill. "Show off." I muttered, and he laughed. We heard sounds of players coming through the gate, but no sounds of 'There they are!' or others, which was good. We reached the church's steeple, and I jumped up to the window, pulling myself in. Kai? He ran up the fricking wall. Then he jumped, putting his hand on the top of the window, before swinging himself in, rolling before getting up. "Show off" I said again, and he grinned. "What? I've always wanted to do that." I sighed. Well, it's not like I can do anything about it.

We looked out the window at the players, who were celebrating the completion of the first floor. "I really hope they finish celebrating fast." Kai grumbled. "I want to go grind." Suddenly, someone appeared from the gate and pelted away from it, with 2 other players running after her. "Is that…" I whispered. Brown hooded cloak, a small strand of curly brown hair, whiskers…

Argo.

"Looks like she's in trouble." Kai said. Apparently, he had noticed it too. I quickly scanned the other players. None were looking up, so we can follow Argo unnoticed. I told Kai this, and he nodded. "Let's go." And we jumped out the window. Landing on the roofs of some tall houses, we ran the direction Argo had gone. While running, I activated the 'Tracking' skill, which Kai didn't have. I saw a series of small green footprints and followed them, but they were fading quickly. "C'mon." I said, and we followed the trail.

 ** _*General PoV*_**

Kirito and Kai exited the city's West Gate which was near the crater. Apparently, the plains were filled with buffalo-like monsters. The trails led deeper into the savannah, and the twins continued to follow it. Kirito checked at the trail. He frowned as he noticed that they were becoming more vivid, and the steps were closer together. It meant that Argo had stopped running.

As they arrived at a valley flanked by to small cliffs, they heard a familiar voice. "…ou ask I won't sell this information!" Argo's voice. Both Kirito and Kai activated their 'Hiding' Skills, and circled around the cliff, Kirito taking the left, while Kai took the right. They were careful not to alert the players down below.

"Won't sell?" The voice was a guy's voice, though slightly muffled. "Doesn't that mean you want to be paid more? We're willing to pay any price." The twins got closer to the voices, and they observed the scene down below. Argo was surrounded at a dead end, 2 other players blocking the way out. "It's not the price!" She snapped. "I don't want to be blamed for what happens after I sell this information!"

"Why would we blame you?" asked a second voice. "Whatever the price, we would still be grateful for it. So just sell us the info about the quest for the Extra Skill already!" ' _Extra skill?'_ Kirito thought, confused. ' _What Extra skill?'_

As they got closer, the shouting became much louder.

"We'll absolutely pull this off today!" shouted the first man.

"We'll do anything to complete that extra skill!" claimed the second.

Argo gave out an exasperated sigh. "You just don't understand! I can't tell you why, but I won't sell this info to you!"

The other two players growled. "Then we'll go it the hard way." The first one said, pulling out their scimitars. But before they could do anything more than that, Kirito and Kai had jumped of the cliff, landing between Argo and the two guys. "Hi!" Kai said cheerfully. "Who are you?! Spies from another clan?" Kai looked confused for a bit. "Clan?, we're not ninjas you…oh." then he realized that the players were wearing dark grey cloth armor, with light chain mails on their upper bodies. Bandanas covered their moths and heads, also gray. Overall, they did look like ninjas.

"Great." Kai muttered. "The guild of rip-off ninjas."

"WHAT?!"

"DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?!"

Kirito blinked. "Ah… You're probably…Fuu? No, Food? Fooga, maybe, but that's not it either…"

"Fuchsia?" Kai suggested, and Argo snickered.

"Fuma!" the first one shouted.

"We are Kotarou and Isuke of the Fumanigun guild!" shouted the other.

Kai clapped his hands together. "Right! The chicken of a guild who runs off with their high agility skill." The 'ninjas' growled. "You dare insult us?!" Kotarou yelled, starting forwards, but Isuke stopped him. "That's enough!" he yelled, before turning and pointing his scimitar to the trio in front of them. "We only want the information. There's nothing you can do to stop us from getting it."

The two unsheathed their swords. "You sure you want to do this?" Kirito asked. In response, the ninjas got into a battle stance. The four players stared at each other. None of them was sure how it would end. Kirito and Kai were more experienced, but the ninjas were fast.

Kai tensed. ' _Well, looks like we have to figh-what the heck?'_

"Behind you" Kirito said, noticing the thing behind the ninjas.

"Do you think we would fall for that?"

"Uh.. You guys know what happens if you stay in one place for too long in this game don't you?" Kai said. "By all means, look behind you."

Curious, the two ninjas turned and jumped, because they came face to face with a giant humanoid cow. The strongest type of monsters on the second floor, the **'Trembling Ox'**. "MOOOOOOOO!" it howled, and the ninjas screamed in response. They took off immediately, the Trembling Ox chasing after them.

Kirito and Kai sheathed their swords and sighed. "Well that's taken care of, then." He said, satisfied. "Argo, are you-"

Before he could continue, two arms wrapped around his waist. "… That was pretty cool, Kirito." Argo murmured, pressing her face against his back. ' _It's… warm.'_ He thought, surprised, because he was wearing a leather coat. Kai stared at the pair, surprised. Then his face adapted an amused expression.

Kirito blinked. "Argo?"

She sighed into the back of his coat and snuggled closer. "But isn't this breaking my first rule?" she mumbled.

"Um.."

Then Argo giggled mischievously. "I guess this makes us even."

"Even?" Kirito and Kai asked.

"Well, you did say you knew more than I did." Argo said. "I think saving me makes us even." Kirito shrugged. Kai snickered a bit. "Uh, I'm still here. You guys need some alone time or what?" Kirito blushed slightly while Argo snickered. "But you guys did take the heat off me a little bit by doing what you guys did on the first floor. But because people hate Beaters now, beta testers like me are in the clear."

She sighed "So you and Kai get one free piece of information. Anything you want."

Kai looked surprised. "Argo giving out free information? Wow, the world must be ending." Argo rolled her eyes. "Don't get used to it. This way, I don't owe you guys anything."

Kirito cut in. "Well, if we're going to get any info we want, What about the reason behind your whiskers?"

"Don't you know never to ask a girl why she wears makeup?" Argo mock scolded. "But okay, I'll tell you." She pulled away. "Actually, you know what? I'll tell you where to find the skill those people were looking for!" Kirito shrugged. "Lead on, Argo."

Argo's face turned serious. "But first, promise not to blame me for whatever happens."

"Why would we blame you?" Kai asked, before palming his face. "Great, now I sound like one of that ninjas."

Kirito chuckled a bit before turning back to Argo. "We promise. Whatever happens, we won't hold a grudge." Argo grinned. "Excellent. Let's go then"

And they took off.

 ** _*Some moments later*_**

Argo led the twins through a tiny trail leading to some hidden entrance around a mountain. Then had to do climb up to the top of the tallest mountain. "How the heck did you find this place Argo?" Kirito asked, panting from the exertion (Kai was flat on his back, taking huge breaths. "Don't blame me, my 'Agility' Stat can't be used to run up incredibly rocky slopes" said Kai to the narrator). Argo shrugged. "I was bored."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?" he asked, and Argo rolled her eyes. "Fine. I was bored, so I did 100 percent map completion." Kai stared, before letting out a laugh. "Well, that's what we should expect from Aincrad's best info broker huh." He said, and she grinned. After a short break, the trio continued their journey.

After a few minutes, they came across a big hole. "Say, what are we going to do now?" Kirito asked. Argo looked at him, a playful gleam in her eyes. "Weeeellll~" she said slowly, before jumping in, whooping as she fell.

Kai followed next, laughing and Kirito followed. The hole led to a slide-like slope, and the two sped down. A minute later, they saw a bright light approaching quickly. Both were launched out of an opening, and Kai landed first, rolling to the side before Kirito landed on his back, right where he had been a second before.

"Enjoy the ride?" Argo asked, and Kai laughed. "I did, and I'm sure Kirito did too." Kirito got up and nodded in confirmation. "That was awesome."

Argo turned and followed the path, The twins close behind. They dealt with several small mobs along the way. ' _She's pretty good with those claws'_ Kai thought as he watched Argo shred another monster to pieces. _'I don't know why she's called Argo the 'Rat'. With those claws and whiskers, she's more of a cat.'_

They continued walking for twenty minutes before reaching a staircase carved into the side of a rock, leading down to a clearing. It was beautiful, with trees, flowers, bushes, and a stream scattered around. In the middle of the clearing however, was a giant rock, taller that any tree and as thick as a house. "Well, here we are!" Argo chirped. "Welcome to the quest for the Martial Arts skill!"

' _Martial Arts, huh?'_ Kirito thought.

"Well, we don't have all day. C'mon, this way." The went further into the glade, moving towards the rock. Then they reached the clearing with a log house next to the rock. "A log cabin?" Kirito murmured and Argo shrugged before walking up to the door and knocked. Then she opened the door and walked in. Kirito and Kai walked in and looked around. The inside looked more like a…

"Is this a dojo?" Kai asked. Argo nodded and pointed her finger at a figure in the middle of the dojo. "Here's the guy who gives you the Martial Arts skill." The man was buff, and had a thick beard, a golden question mark hovering over his head.

Kirito raised a hand. "The Martial Arts skill enables you to fight with bare hands right?"

"Yep"

"Right. Let's do this."

They walked over to the man. He shifted, staring at the two. "You wish to become my disciple?"

"Yes." came the reply.

"Even though there will be difficult challenges in your training?"

"Yes."

"Very well." The question mark turned to an exclamation mark, and the man got up. "Follow me."

He walked outside and stood in front of the rock. "You must break this rock using only your hands. Once you have succeeded in this task, I will teach you all I know."

Kirito gulped. "Wait, what? W-wait a sec." he tapped the boulder, testing it's durability and toughness. He winced. "I-it's almost invincible."

"Leaving this mountain is prohibited until this rock is destroyed." The man produced a small pot and a brush from his robe. Before any of them (Except Argo) knew what was happening, the master painted whiskers on Kirito's cheeks in lightning speed. Kai yelped and jumped backwards, but the NPC caught up with him and painted them on his whiskers.

"What the-" Kai said, trying to remove the whiskers, but it stayed there. The master put away the pot and brush. "That mark cannot be removed until you complete the task. I believe in you, my disciples." And with that, he walked into his hut and shut the door.

Kirito turned to Argo. "So, you did the quest in the beta."

Argo grinned. "Yep."

"And when you finished it, you liked the whiskers. In result, you used cosmetics to apply them afterwards."

"They were your sign. Ever since then, you've been known as Argo 'the Rat'."

"Congratulations!" Argo said, clapping her hands. "You get both the martial arts skill and the reason behind my whiskers!"

"Great." Kai muttered. "Well, I guess we're stuck here for a while, before opening his menu. He looked around for a while before groaning. "Aw man, I didn't bring any food. How 'bout you Kirito?" Kirito checked his and shook his head. "Nope, me neither."

"Well, I have some. I can sell some to you." Argo said "And I think I'll hang around a bit. I could sell you some tips."

Kai sighed in relief while Kirito started asking for some tips. A few moments later, both Kirito and Kai tried to break the rock. Kirito punched the rock experimentally and winced. _'That hurts! Oh man, this is going to take a while..'_

 ** _*Time Skip!*_**

 ** _*Kai's PoV*_**

"This is taking forever." I muttered, sitting on the grass. They had tried punching it for hours, but all they got was bruised knuckles.

"Well, it did take me a week to finish this in the beta." Argo said. "Here." She tossed me a bread roll from the first floor, and in return, I gave her 30 Col in return. Sure, it was over 2 times the original cost, but food is food. And I can't focus if I'm hungry. "Thanks." She merely nodded and continued making appointments through messages. She leaves from time to time to sell info, but she came back about 10 minutes ago.

She said that she'll stick around for 3 days or so, then she'll have to continue finding and selling info. There were no monsters in this area, and the only ones who knew about this place were Argo, Kirito, and me. "Let's call it a day." Kirito said. "I'm beat."

"Alright." I said reluctantly. I was tired, but I still wanted to try. Even so, Kirito had run out of energy, so there was no way we could finish today. We pulled out our sleeping bags and lay down. Even so, I couldn't sleep. I had a lot of things going on in my head. Things like…

 _I wonder what Sugu's doing right now.._

 _I hope Riley and the others are OK._

 _Wonder where Asuna is right now._

 _Is Klein alright? I haven't seen him since a month ago._

 _This boulder is taking forever to break._

 _Damn Kayaba for making this hard._

 _Oh hey, there's a chipmunk._

Yep. Normal thoughts. So I just lay there, resting.

An hour passed, and I still couldn't sleep. "You still awake?" I looked over. For some reason, Argo was still awake. "Yeah. What's up?" Argo sighed. "Just… thinking."

"About what?"

"…"

"Argo?"

"…"

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's ok." I said.

"…Thanks."

I didn't want to intrude. I may be curious, but if it's private, I don't want to press it. Plus, I had questions of my own.

"Hey, Argo?"

"Hmm?"

"Why'd you become an Info broker?" I looked at her. "I mean, you're intelligent, fast, and very skilled with claws, you'd be a great tactician and fighter in the front lines." This was true. I'm not complaining about her being an info broker, but I was confused. A lot of people in this game would choose to fight instead of just looking for info. That's the fun in RPG games.

"Well, I became an info broker so I can earn a lot of Col." She said simply, but something was off… it's like she didn't mean what she said. I could hear a hint of sadness there.

"That's a lie." I said, and she looked taken aback. "I know you really like gaining money and all, but I don't think that's the reason why." I sat up and turned to her direction. "You can tell me. I won't tell anyone, I swear."

She sat up and turned to me, a suspicious and curious look in her eyes. "Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you?" I thought about what to say next. It's true that I might be invading here personal space, but something was hurting her, and I'd help if I can. "Because I know that something is bothering you, and I want to help." I smiled a bit. "Because you're my friend."

She was silent. I waited for her to say something. After all, it was up to her if she wanted to say something or not right? Minutes passed, and I started to think she wasn't going to say anything. I mean really, we just stared at each other for like, 10 minutes. Well, I might as well-

"In real life, I don't have a lot of friends." I looked at her. "My personality towards other people can be a little…brash and unyielding. I made lots of enemies that way." She took a deep breath. "I have a very good memory, one of the reasons why I like being an Info Broker. I'm always able to remember a lot of things for a long period of time, even if I only looked at it once. It's always been one of my gifts…but it's hard to connect with other people when they only know you for your memory."

"In real life, I was used a lot. Other students see me as a cheat machine or a freak. A lot of them were jealous because of my memory, and that's why I developed that harsh personality. So I can ignore the hate and envy of the others." She shuddered. "But as a result, I've always been alone. I had no friends, and I was used to it, until you guys came along."

I was surprised. Argo didn't deserve that. Even if she was mischievous and sometimes unyielding, she was a good person. I mean, look at what she had done! She published a guide book so that non-beta testers could survive. She makes sure all of her info is genuine, instead of lying for personal gain. Sure, she might be one of the sneakiest people you've ever met, but when she was friends with someone, she meant it.

"When you guys came, I thought you would be the same as everyone, but you were the only ones who seemed…different. Everyone else would just talk to me harshly, acting like I was an NPC or something. You two were…nice. You seemed to actually care for me. I admit. I was surprised, but I was happy. Even if it was only in game, I had friends. So when the beta ended, I was sad, but I looked forward to the actual release."

"I was worried that if you knew how I was in real life, you'll treat me like the others did in real life, so…" She trailed off. I could see the tears swimming in her eyes. She hated being lonely. Seeing her like this made me sad. I stood up, walked over, and sat beside her. I patted her back.

"Listen, I'm sorry you had to go through all that. It's unfair, and you don't deserve to be lonely. But you don't have to be alone anymore." She looked up at me, and I smiled at her. "You have friends now. Me and Kirito. Plus, I can help you in getting more friends. If you need help, just ask us and we'll do our best to help you out, OK?"

She wiped her tears away and took a deep breath. "…Ok. Thanks Kai." She said softly. I nodded and squeezed her shoulder slightly before returning to my own sleeping bag. I was still unable to sleep, and I had a feeling Argo wouldn't be able to sleep so quickly either. So I got an idea. I pulled out a flute. I had leveled my 'Musical Instrument' skill a bit, and I learned a few songs.

"Do you… want to hear some music? Maybe it'll help you sleep." She looked surprised, and then grinned. "Wow Kai, I didn't think you'd put some effort in that skill." She said. I shrugged. "Oh please, I'm not all about combat."

I opened my menu and selected a song. So far, I had only unlocked 6 songs. I selected one and brought the flute to my lips. I played for a bit, and then the system took over. The song trailed off into the silence, the melody soft and slow. It was pretty peaceful to me.

After around 3 or 4 minutes, the song ended, and I stopped. I looked over to Argo to find that she was already asleep. Huh. She actually looks kinda cute like that. I put my flute away and lay back down on my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. Somehow, this time, I fell asleep.

 ** _*Time Skip!*_**

 ** _*General PoV*_**

Kirito and Kai were getting bored. Since no monsters spawned in the area, they couldn't grind. Another problem was that their weapons and equipment (gloves and Kai's leather armor) hasn't been repaired after the boss fight, so things could get ugly if they get into a serious fight. What's worse is they weren't even close to breaking the rock. They took turns in punching the rock, but no real progress was made. It would shift a bit from time to time when they landed a strong punch, but no cracks appeared.

That night, Argo didn't have trouble sleeping. Kai, however, stayed awake. He played a small tune on his flute, staring at the rock. _'There must be a weak spot somewhere…'_ he thought. ' _If we rely on punching it until the durability reaches 0, we'll be here for a year! Maybe more…'_ he put away the flute and sighed. Then he stood up and walked over to the rock, examining it. "Like every floor boss, there has to be a weakness." He muttered. "And I'm gonna find it."

 ** _*Time Skip!*_**

 ** _*Kai's PoV*_**

It was dawn before I actually found a weak spot. There was a tiny fracture on the side of the boulder. If I gave it an experimental punch it would tremble a bit, but not break. The others are still asleep, so I'll point it out to them later. For now, I'll just try to break it on my own.

So I got into a stance, and-

 _'Focus'_

…What the hell? I turned. Who said that?

 _'Concentrate, Shin'_

I would've answered if I could, but nobody was there. The others were asleep, the master was nowhere in sight, no monsters could spawn here, so astral type mobs wasn't possible either.

 _'Shin'_

I decided to talk back.

"Who are you?"

 _'…that's not important.'_

"It is. Who are you? How are you talking to me?"

 _'…'_

"Are you a player?"

 _'No. I'm not a player. I'm you. Just a little…different. Take it as dual personalities. As for how I'm talking to you, I'm in your head.'_

"…What?"

This made no sense. How am I talking to myself, and how did I gain a second personality or consciousness? This has got to be a lie. And yet… it didn't seem like a lie.

 _'Close your eyes.'_

"Why?"

 _'Just do it.'_

And so I did. When I reopened them, I didn't see the rock, the trees, or…anything at all for that matter. Nothing but white. "Where am I…" I muttered.

"In your mind."

I spun to see… me? it was as if I was looking at a mirror… except I don't have red eyes.

"You're… me?" I asked.

"More specifically, I'm a form of your… negative feelings let's say. Feelings you've kept to yourself for years."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Think about it. What do you think I mean?"

Well, it was true that I've kept a lot of feelings to myself for a long time. I did so ever since the accident that killed mom and dad. Let's see. I made a mental list.

One: the day of the accident. I held back my grief, because I had to be strong for Kazuto. I also had to bear with Kazuto's traumatic amnesia, including memories of me. Worst of all, I watched them… our parents.. Die in front of me.

Two: Ever since Kazuto became distant. I had to pretend to be distant to the others in front of Kazuto so he'll trust me, and it tore him to see Suguha hurt like that. I had to suppress anger at Kazuto for being so cold, so blind to the fact that even though they weren't their real mom and sister, they cared for him as if they truly were part of the family.

Three: When Riley, Rin, Takao, and Amy had to leave. I was sad. They were the first group of people who was more interested in me rather than my brother. Everyone else was more interested in my brother's lone and mysterious personality. I felt lonely.

There were more minor ones that I had kept, but there was also this one fact that Aunt Midori pointed out not long before we got stuck in this game. Ever since I was 5, I never cried. Not once. The closest to that were only tears swimming around in my eyes, but never falling.

This other me was the creation of all those? Did all those feelings strong enough to develop a second persona?

"So…you're basically a dark version of me."

"You could say that, but it sounds to…cheesy don't you think?"

"Well,"

"Never mind that, do you need my help or not?"

"Help in...What?"

He rolled his eyes. "Breaking the damn rock, of course." Oh yeah, I've forgotten about that.

I was confused. If he was a dark version of me, why was he helping me? "Why are you being so helpful?" I asked, and I-no-he (He's me but I'm me so… Ah, I'll just call it as he.) laughed. Laughed that dangerous laugh that Kirito had on the first floor, proclaiming himself as a Beater. "Oh don't think I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this so you'll get out of here. after all, if you're stuck here all the time, it'll get boring." He said, shrugging.

"You…want to take over?"

"Maybe not now, but eventually." He grinned. "So, you still wanna get out?"

I nodded and he told me to close my eyes again. When I reopened them, I was back in front of the rock. It was as if nothing had happened.

 _'Now, focus.'_

I got into my stance again.

 _'Concentrate your energy on your fist. Bring it back and twist it._

I did what he said, and to my surprise, it started glowing with a yellowish-gold light.

 _'Do it now! Martial Arts sword skill:_ _ **'The Embracer'!**_ _'_

I punched my fist forwards and it slammed into the small crack on the side of the rock.

 _CRACK!_

I jerked back my hand and stared at the rock. It was cracked, almost in half.

"What the hell did you just do?!"

Turned to see Argo staring at me with wide eyes.

"Uh, good morning?"

"Forget the good morning! How did you do that?" she shouted.

"Well…" I repeated my actions, and my hand enveloped itself in the same yellowish-gold light before thrusting it out.

"Well, that was…unexpected." I turned to see Kirito, who repeated my move and slammed his fist against the rock. A loud crack sounded, and the rock split in half.

"Well done."

I jumped. I whirled around to see the NPC standing there. "You have learned well." he said. Kirito turned to him. "We've shattered the boulder. Will you teach us the skill now?" The NPC smiled. "You've already learned the skill I can teach you." It's up to you to improve your skills from this point forward." He turned and walked back into the house, disappearing inside.

A window appeared in front of me.

 _Congratulations!_

 _New skill unlocked!_

 _'Martial Arts'_

Well, glad that's over with. It only took 3 days, too! I turned to Kirito and Argo. "Well, we're done. Let's get these marks off then head to town to repair our equipment and restock on food and items." We walked to the stream nearby and washed our faces. As we washed our faces, I looked at my reflection. For a moment, its eyes flashed red and it smirked, before returning to my normal reflection.

I felt a presence.

 _'See you then.'_

And it was gone.

 **Alright! 5,8K Words! I made this chapter quite long. So, yeah. Kai has dual personalities or consciousness or something, and technically, he's supposed to be more powerful in that state. It's kinda classic, but it's alright for me, I guess. This was based off a suggestion of a friend (Who does not have a fanfic account). Other than that, nothing's so different from the original storyline.**

 **For those who are wondering, this is NOT Kai's unique skill. I'll be damned if he got it that early in the game. And if it was, some of you would probably say 'THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! IT'S ONLY FLOOR 2 DAMNIT!'** **And all. But no. According to my friend's suggestion, this is supposed to be something he'll have in SAO, ALO, GGO, and in real life too. Basically, it's a part of him. It represents his Anger, Grief, Hate, Sadness, Hurt, Bloodlust, etc.**

 **Too cheesy? Bite me.**

 **Sadly, I won't be able to update next week and probably not the week after either. Sorry! My parents are taking me on a holiday trip, and I'm not allowed to bring my computer. Don't give up hope though! I'll still be updating new chapters, and if it's possible, I'll try to update weekly. If there are any problems please tell me and I'll repair it. Also, maybe some of you have suggestions? My friend is the one who suggested on making Kai's Dark side or whatever you want to call it. Bleh.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter!**

 **Sincerely,**

 ** _Last Step_**


	8. Killing Cows (MOO!)

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I'm back from my trip and wow it was EXHAUSTING! So I took a break from some things, including writing (Sorry!). But I'm back to writing now! Before I start, I have a few things to say.**

 **First,**

 ** _ToxicGirlfriend (Guest),_** **you're not that far off, actually. I wouldn't call it a multiple personality disorder, but they're sort of a cross between consciousness's and personalities. So they can interact inside, but on the outside, they're really just the same person. Kind of like he created an image of his own separate personality to talk to, but he can change at will (Not that he realizes this until much, much later). But yeah. This whole separate persona WAS created to cope with the fact that their parents died in front of him, while Kazuto's way of coping was that traumatic amnesia.**

 **So, one is the nice guy who always bottles up negative emotions. That only fuels the other persona, which is the bad boy. The cold, occasionally sadistic side who will have no hesitation on hurting the people who he is mad at, and as other things too. As I said in the previous chapter's final author's note, the so-called 'dark side' represents a lot of things that Kai had kept to himself. Like grief, anger, hate, jealousy, etc. Some things that it will show later on are things like bloodlust, desire, etc.**

 **The friend who suggested all this 'dark side' thing doesn't want me to say his name, so I'll jus say his initials (HS). HS here also mentions (Well, suggested) that the 'dark side' will be more controlled or 'tamed' much later in the story. I think I'll do that.**

 **Second,**

 **I think I'll change the title and summary of this story soon. Title suggestions anyone? PM me.**

 **Anyways, enough with the explanations! Let's get on with the story.**

 **Chapter 7**

 **Killing Cows**

 ** _*December 8_** ** _th_** ** _2022*_**

 ** _*General PoV*_**

"Switch!"

Kirito jumped back and Kai charged in, taking advantage of the Trembling Ox's confusion. His sword gleamed red as he activated the 1-hit thrust sword skill, **'Vorpal Strike'**. It hit the monster square in the chest, the blade sinking into the virtual flesh. Roaring in pain, it fell on its back before bursting into polygons.

"Well, that's done." He said, sheathing his sword. They had been grinding the past 2 days, stopping only to fix their weapons, eat, and (For Kai's case) talk with some friends (His old friends and Argo. Asuna not included). Both had reached level 17, making them the current highest level players.

Kirito looked at the time display on his menu. "We still have an hour before we break for lunch. Do you want to continue grinding?" When Kai didn't answer, he dismissed his menu and turned to him. "Kai?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he pointed into something in the distance. "Look. Isn't that the field boss in the beta?" Turning to the direction he was pointing at, Kirito caught a glimpse of a large bull with four horns, easily 4 meters tall. "You're right." He muttered before smirking, turning to Kai. "Want to scout the boss?" Kai nodded, and the both of them walked to the boss.

Once they got close they drew their swords, a teleportation crystal in hand to make a quick escape if needed. As soon as they got in the boss's range, it snapped its head towards them. The **'Bullbous Bow'**. It had 2 health bars and each of its horns was 10 feet long.

"A cow." Kai muttered. "Of course it had to be a cow. All the mobs in this god-forsaken floor are cows except for the **'Wind Wasps'**." Kirito shrugged at this comment. "It's similar, but different from the beta. It's about 2 times larger don't you think?"

"Yeah. It looked way smaller from afar."

They readied themselves when the Bullbous Bow did what bulls do best.

Charge.

It was charging straight at Kai. He jumped to the left and readied an attack, but unexpectedly, the bull made a sharp turn in his direction and charged him again. Kai yelped and sprinted to the side, the bull hot on his trail. "This is different from the beta! What's the use of being in the beta if so many things are different!" he yelled. He passed Kirito on the way and he hit the bull on the side with a sword skill. Ignoring the damage, it continued chasing Kai.

 _'That's it! It can only target one opponent!'_ Kirito thought, realizing the boss' flaw. ' _As long as it's is just this one person, everyone else can attack its sides!_

"Kai! We're done! Let's go!" Kirito yelled, running out of the boss' area. Kai followed suit, the bull stopping once his target stepped out. It returned to the center of the territory, eating some grass.

"The boss can only target one player. As long as that player keeps the monster's attention to him or her, the boss will ignore everyone else." Kirito told Kai. "Well, that means the fastest player we have has to keep its attention on it. On the list, there's me, you, Asuna, and Argo. I don't think that Argo will participate, so maybe the 3 of us will have to party again."

Kirito flinched at the thought. Party with someone he abandoned so that she wouldn't be hated? Doesn't that beat the purpose of him leaving in the first place? "Unless if she already joined another party. Who knows?" Kai added, sensing his brother's uneasiness. "Yeah hopefully." Kirito said, suddenly hopeful.

"Anyway, I'm sending Argo the info. Anything else you want to add?"

"No, nothing for now."

Nodding, he typed the message and sent it. Dismissing the menu, he turned to Kirito. "So, are we going for lunch, or are we going to grind?" Kirito opened his menu briefly to check the time. "Let's break for lunch. Then we'll grind again."

So they headed back to town.

 ** _*Time Skip!*_**

"Well, we're done here." Kirito said, watching as the Wind Wasp before him burst into polygons.

Kai checked the map. "The next group should be somewhere in the west." He said. "There should be a lot of these Wind Wasps there, so we can take our time."

Kirito sighed. "Alright, let's go." The two started moving towards the west of town, heading to the open glade.

But when they arrived, the glade was empty. "Weird." Kai said, frowning. "There's nothing around here…" Activating his 'Searching' skill, Kirito observed the area. There were no mobs around except… "There's a player. I can see a green cursor in the distance, along with a few red ones. Maybe he/she is the one who cleared the mobs here."

"Well, should we check on it?" Kai asked.

"I don't think we need to. All the monsters have been killed already." He replied. True to his words, all the red cursors have disappeared, meaning that no monsters were left. Then the green cursor shifted, moving in their direction. "Well, the player is heading here. He or she should be over that hill in a few seconds." Soon enough, the player emerged, letting the twins get a good look at her. Kirito's jaw dropped in recognition.

It was Asuna.

"Kirito? Kai?"

Kirito sighed. "Crap." Just the person he wanted to avoid.

Kai was the first to respond (Naturally) "Hey Asuna. Doing alright?"

Asuna blinked, and then smiled. "Yeah. I also got a new rapier." She said, patting her weapon.

"A Wind Fleuret." Kirito said, awed. "That's one of the rarest monster drops you can get from a Wind Wasp…"

Asuna smiled again. "Pretty lucky huh? Anyway, what have you guys been up to?"

"Oh, the usual." Kai said, waving a hand. "Grinding, exploring dungeons, scouting field bosses-"

"Scouting field bosses?!" Asuna yelped, clearly surprised. "There's a field boss?"

"Uh-huh. There's one blocking the trail heading for the town nearest to the dungeon. We're going to have a meeting for it tomorrow."

"And who's leading it?" Asuna questioned.

"Uh…" Kai opened his menu, rechecking Argo's reply on the subject. "Lind. The leader of the Holy Dragon Brigade. It looks like they'll hold it at 10 O'clock tomorrow."

"Alright, so I'll guess we'll meet again tomorrow?"

"Sure thing." Kirito said.

"Alright. Bye then." And she left.

"You really don't want to party with her again don't you?" Kai asked.

"Not if I can help it. We'll get her in trouble. We're beaters remember?" Kirito replied. "Anyway, let's grind some more." Turning around, he walked off to the next area.

Sighing, Kai turned to follow his brother.

 ** _*December 4_** ** _th_** ** _, 2022*_**

 ** _*Urbus, 2_** ** _nd_** ** _floor of Aincrad*_**

Kirito and Kai arrived 5 minutes early. Considering this was a field boss meeting, the amount of assembled players wasn't as big as the meeting to the battle against Illfang. Even so, the moment they entered the plaza, the talking died down, and glares were directed to the two. Well, except Asuna.

Kirito's shoulders slumped. "It doesn't seem like she's in a party." He sighed, and Kai gave him a small pat in the back. "Agil and my friends don't seem to be here. I guess they aren't coming.

They found seats on the very front row, where it was quite empty (The other players flat out refused to give them seats near them). 5 minutes later, the meeting started.

"Okay! Good morning!" Lind said loudly so that everyone could hear him. "We're going to go over what we know about the boss for everyone to know. An informant had come to me with info about it yesterday afternoon. Argo?"

He stepped aside, and the familiar whiskered info broker stepped forward.

"The boss' name is ' **The Bullbous Bow'**. Like it's uncreative name suggests, It's a bull. The boss is 4 meters tall, and has 4 gigantic horns, each 10 feet long. It is crazy fast, and has a flawless reaction time, so dodging its charging attack won't do any good. There is only one flaw in its attack pattern. It can only charge 1 player, ignoring anyone else who attack it from the side, unless you hit it on the head or horn area, shifting its target to you. If it hits you, you can either go flying or get skewered by its horns. And it'll hurt like a bitch, so uh, don't get hit."

Some of the players chuckled and Argo grinned. "Now, for the plan to work, we need everyone to work together, so-"

"Tell that to the beaters!" a player from Kibaou's group cut in. Immediately after that statement, an instant uproar followed. Yells of agreement, insults, and curses filled the air, directed at the twins at the front.

Kirito rolled his eyes. "Here we go again." They waited a minute so the shouting would die down, but it didn't. Losing his patience, Kirito stood up and faced the crowd. "Is that all?" he asked, his voice bored but loud enough to be heard over the shouts. The angry players stopped their insults abruptly, surprised at how ineffective their insults were.

"Pathetic."

The players started to retort before Kai decided to jump in. without even bothering to stand or turn around, he addressed the players in the same bored tone. "I thought the reason we're here is to discuss the field boss. Not hearing your stupid comments about us."

"And for the record, we don't give a shit on what you think about us. So just sit down, shut up, and stop being crybabies, kay?" Kirito said, and without waiting for a response, he turned his back towards the crowd and sat down. Before anyone else could say anything, Argo started speaking again. "Alright! Thanks for showing us how to effectively waste our time people. But now, can we get on with the meeting?" her amused tone bringing down the tension.

"Now for the plan," She paused, looking at everyone. "I'll let my informant tell that himself. Ki-bou, Kai, can you do the honors?" she gestured at them to come up to the front. Both gulped, feeling everyone's eyes on their backs.

They walked forward. Looking back at the crowd, Kai noticed some worried glances among the ones full of hate. _'The former beta testers."_ He thought. He pointed it out to Kirito (Unnoticed), and he relaxed slightly. At least some would listen.

"As you all know, the boar will only charge at one person, and one person alone." Kirito said. "There are 2 factors that will cause the bull to charge you. One, if you're separated from the group, it will single you out. Two, if you hit its head or horns."

"The plan is that one person has to stay on the run, bringing the bull around the area so players can attack it. You can attack while the boar is moving, and every time the boar turns there will be a 1 second delay where it will be vulnerable. But the targeted player has to keep moving, and you can't stop. Not even for a second."

Everyone was silent for a while, letting the message sink in. then Kibaou stood up and pointed an accusing finger at them. "I understand now! The only reason you gave that information is that one of us will take on that responsibility! That way, the both of you can attack freely and get the last attack bonus! You selfish beaters!" he yelled. All the players (Except Asuna and Argo) stood up and started throwing insults at them. They all agreed that the only reason the beaters wanted them there was to use them as human shields.

Kai sighed before raising a hand. "I'll be the target!" he yelled, and the players' yelling stopped abruptly, staring at him in disbelief. Even Kirito looked surprised. He shot him a look asking _'What are you doing?'_ Kai just replied a glare that said _'Trust me'._ "You heard me! I'll be the target. The rest of you attack it from its flank, and stay out of our way. Stick to your groups, and it won't target you. Understood?"

More stunned silence. He decided to take that as a yes. "Good." Kai said. "Like on the first floor, gather in parties of 6. Then go replenish your healing items, repair your weapons, take a nap, whatever the hell you want to do. Then we can fight the field boss."

Lind was stunned. _'That…That was my line!'_ he gaped at the beaters as it seemed like he was the raid leader now, and not him. He cleared his throat and stepped forward. "It shouldn't be hard, but all of you be careful okay? We don't want any _casualties_ today. He put extra emphasis on the word 'casualties' as if it meant 'victims of the beaters', while glaring at the two. If anyone wants extra information, ask me or buy some from Argo. We meet back here at 12 o'clock, and then we'll go fight the field boss. Dismissed!"

As the players left, some of the players shot curious looks at Kai, while others still looked at him with hate, but it had reduced somewhat. Argo slipped away, heading to an appointment with a client. Kirito punched his brother on the shoulder lightly. "What's the use of being a beater if you go and make yourself likeable?" he asked. Kai grinned apologetically. "Sorry, but I have the bigger chance of surviving than any of the options right? I'm faster than you, and I have higher level than Asuna. So even if she is faster than me, I'll be more capable of taking hits."

Kirito huffed. "Then I'll back you up. You can't keep on running, you'll tire." Kai gave him a thumbs up. "Fine by me."

"Can I join your party?"

Kirito stiffened at the voice and turned to see Asuna standing there.

"No." Kirito said quickly. "Why not?" Asuna asked, the determination in her voice clear. "We're beaters, Asuna. If you join us, you'll be hated."

"Well, I don't want to party with Lind or Kibaou or any of their friends. They've offered a place in their party, but Lind is an arrogant jerk who wants me as a mascot, and that prejudiced cactus just wants more people against beaters."

Kai glanced at Kirito. "Well, uh…" Kirito sighed "Fine, you can join our party. But don't go around saying that you're partied with Beaters." He sent her a party request, and she accepted. "Well, I'm going to restock on healing potions and upgrade my rapier. See you later." Satisfied, she turned around and walked off.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Kai asked. "We still have…(Checks menu) an hour before the boss meeting. We've already stocked up on potions, fixed our weapons, and grinding for an hour would be pointless."

"Let's break for a quick meal. Then come back here."

"Sounds good to me"

And they both left the plaza.

 ** _*Time Skip!*_**

 ** _*In front of the field boss Area*_**

"Holy cow, they were telling the truth." A player from Kibaou's group muttered, seeing the monster in front of them. Kai made his way to the front of all the players, Kirito following. Most of Kibaou's group and some in Lind's looked at them with disgust, while other players shown no expression. "Okay, I'll go in first. Once it's locked on me, all of you rush in and attack its sides. Remember not to attack its head area, stick with your groups, and do not get in front of it."

Then Kai turned and stepped into the area. Immediately, the bull's head snapped to his direction and prepared itself to charge. He took off to the left, the bull roaring (Or moo-ing) hot in pursuit. "Attack!" Lind yelled, and the raid party rushed into the field. Kai dodged left and right, giving the players opportunities to attack.

Shouting a war cry, Kirito activated a sword skill **'Vertical Arc'** before Asuna rushed in, successfully hitting the boss with a **'Linear'** before it rushed of, following Kai. As the boss turned again, Lind hit it with a two-handed sword skill **'Cyclone'** , spinning before swinging his sword at the boss, dealing big damage. Other players rushed in with their own sword skills, further lowering the boss' health.

Soon, the first health bar depleted, and the bull let out a loud roar (MOOO!). "Kirito, switch!" Kai yelled, and he backed off, Kirito capturing the boss' attention by slicing off the tip of its horn. Eyes flashing red, it chased after Kirito, its speed somewhat faster.

Nevertheless, Kirito was fast enough to evade its charge. Kai joined in the attack, but never got too focused in case Kirito needed to switch. True enough, he got close and yelled 'Switch', moving aside for Kai to stab its eye before bolting off, the bull now targeting him. Soon enough, the final health bar was down to the red zone.

Then all hell broke loose.

The moment the boss' health reached the red zone, the both of them recklessly charged the boss, hitting its head.

 _'Stupid!'_ Kai thought.

And when the boss turned its head to them, they kept attacking.

 _'More Stupid!'_

Finally realizing they were in danger, Kibaou took off, leaving Lind as a target.

 _'What the f-'_

He dropped his sword and ran. The bull stepped on the sword, and it broke.

 _'Seriously, this can't get any wor-never mind._ '

Lind tripped over his own feet and planted his face into the ground.

The boss rushed at Lind, and he froze in fear. Kirito raced towards Lind and jumped over him, landing between Lind and the bull. Then to everyone's (Except Kai's) surprise, he threw his sword up and clenched his fist, making it glow in an orange light. The moment the bull was in range, Kirito punched it on its nose, disorientating the bull and knocking it back a small distance.

But Kirito wasn't done. Jumping forwards, he brandished his hand high in the air, still glowing orange, and caught his sword. The blade then turned orange, and he swung it down on the bull's head.

The 2-hit Martial Arts and Sword skill, **'Meteor Fall'**.

Its health reduced to only a sliver, and Kai was already there, activating **'Vorpal Strike'**. The blade slammed into the boss, depleting its final health bar. The boss crashed to the ground and exploded into blue polygons. A window appeared before Kai.

 _Congratulations!_

 _You got the Last Attack Bonus!_

 _Obtained:_

 _2-handed sword: Roaring Thunder_

Kai sighed. "What did you get?" Kirito asked. "A two-handed sword. It's nothing I need." He replied.

"YOU SEE! HE TOOK THE LAST ATTACK BONUS!" Kai turned to see Kibaou shouting, pointing at him. "He only wanted us here to make it easier to get it! You damn selfish Beater!" Kibaou's group started shouting too, and more of Lind's group followed.

"SHUT UP!" Kai yelled, and the players were stunned into silence. "I'm getting tired of hearing you guys whine and cry and complain at us like a bunch of babies." Kibaou's face grew red with rage, when he opened his mouth to retort, Kai had turned to Lind. "Oi you. You lost your sword right?"

He glared at him and crossed his arms. "Yeah I did. And that's your fault, beater." Kai raised an eyebrow. "If you hadn't drawn the boss' attention by hitting its head, then drop your sword like an idiot, you wouldn't have lost your sword, dumbass." Unable to make a good retort, he just glared at him.

Kai shook his head, then opened his menu, materializing the last attack bonus before holding it hilt-first to Lind. "Take it. It's the Last Attack Bonus, but I don't need it."

"I don't want your help beater!" he snapped, but his eyes were on the sword. "You don't have a sword. By looking at the stats of this sword, it's clearly better that any sword they sell at the sword. In the beta, if you upgrade this sword to the max, it'll be good enough till the next few floors." Kai said, still holding the sword out. Lind was trying (and failing) to look uninterested and Kai sighed. "Look, if you don't want it, I'm leaving it here. Anyone who wants it may take it. I don't care either way."

Lind looked at him for a few seconds. Then very slowly, he extended a hand and grasped the hilt. Kai et go of the sword and let him have it. He inspected the sword a bit before sheathing it, and then looked at Kai curiously. "What do you expect from me? A favor? Money? Respect?"

"No, I don't want or need anything from you." Kai said. "To clear this game, we'll need fighters on the front lines. The stronger they are the better. I've gotta admit. You're pretty good with a sword, and your guild mates seem loyal to you." Then he smirked. "Just try to keep up with me and my brother. That is, if you can."

Then he turned to leave. Some of the insults returned after that last statement, but not as much. "C'mon Kirito." He said simply, and the two walked off to the next town. Kirito looked at Kai. "Nice ending back there." Kai laughed a bit. "A Beater does what beaters do." Kai looked up at his HUD. "by the way, why's Asuna still in our party list?"

"Oh, right." Manipulating his menu, he dissolved the party before sending Kai a party request. After accepting, the duo continued walking to the next town.

 ** _*December 14, 2022*_**

 ** _*2_** ** _nd_** ** _Floor boss meeting*_**

52 people gathered in the fountain plaza in Urbus. Most of them consisted of members from the Holy Dragon Brigade (HDB) and the Aincrad Liberation Force(ALF or The Army). The rest consisted of Kirito, Kai, Asuna, Agil, an 2 small guilds named Legend Braves and Rising Blades (Kai's friends').

"Alright, listen up!" Lind shouted. "Me and a few of my scouts have found the boss room. Before we fight, we'll see what the guidebook has on the 2nd floor boss. Schivata?" He waved his hand, and one of his party members stepped forward, pulling out the small leather book from his pocket. "According to the guidebook, the floor boss is named **'Baran the General Taurus'**. This boss has 5 health bars. Baran is a 5-meter tall humanoid Taurus with re skin. It uses a massive golden hammer, and it has a special attack that stuns you for 3 seconds. The special attack's name is **'Numbing Detonation'** and the boss activates this by slamming its hammer to the ground, creating a shockwave.

There are no mobs, but there is a sub-boss named **'Nato the Colonel Taurus'**. Nato looks like Baran, but has blue skin and is only half his size. He also wields a hammer half the size of Baran's hammer, and has the skill **'Numbing Impact'** , with the exact same range but half the range. This sub-boss has 3 health bars." He turned a page. "They have a weak point. Their horns aren't protected by anything, and that's their weak point. If we hit it, the boss will stumble, giving us an opening to attack."

Closing the book, he looked up at the assembled players. "There are a few things to look out for. The stunning skill and its berserk state. When both boss' health is down to the last red zone, it will change color and go berserk, so be careful." With that, Schivata turned and returned to his party.

Lind started speaking again. "That's all for the briefing. The party that kills the boss will keep the money and items obtained, while EXP will be split evenly among the entire raiding party. Anyone who disagrees may leave now."

Kirito nodded in approval. "At least now we know that they'll work together, and hopefully no one does anything stupid." Kai looked skeptical. "Well, that depends on a particular orange cactus."

"Okay! I need all of you to divide into 8 groups. Then we can go over the plan."

It took a while before the whole raid party divided themselves to groups. Especially Kirito and Kai. Nevertheless, they joined a group led by Agil, along with Asuna and the Rising Blades.

Looking up at the list, Kirito summarized the groups.

 _Groups A-C: Holy Dragon Brigade Members (6 Members Each Group + Lind)_

 _Groups D-F: Aincrad Liberation Force Members (6 Members Each Group + Kibaou)_

 _Group G: Legend Braves Members (6 Members)_

 _Group H: Agil, Kirito, Kai, Asuna, and Rising Blades Members (8 people)_

He zoned out for a moment before realizing that Lind had started talking. He snapped his attention back at him, not wanting to miss their group's job. "…with groups F and G. Group H will take care of the sub-boss." He turned to them, along with all the other groups (A-G) and Kirito felt a huge wave of hostility hit him, and by the way Kai had stiffened, Kirito knew he felt it too. "I'm sure you can handle it, due to the fact that both of the _beaters_ are with you. Acceptable?"

"Acceptable." Agil said, wanting to avoid making more unnecessary arguments.

"Good." Lind nodded, a smug smile on his face. "Let's go!"

The whole raiding group got up, and followed Lind to the boss room.

 ** _*Time Skip*_**

 ** _*Outside the 2_** ** _nd_** ** _Floor Boss Room*_**

"Everyone ready?" Lind yelled, and the raid party shouted an affirmative.

Kirito grinned. "Let's do this." He said, and Kai smirked. "I'm more than ready to get to the next floor. I'm seriously bored of seeing cows every other day."

"You two sure are eager." Leon said from behind them. "I'm downright nervous."

"Relax. Just try not to die." Lily called from behind, and Kai face palmed. "That's not exactly reassuring."

"Not at all." Leon said, sighing.

"She hasn't changed one bit."

"Nope. Still as brave as a lion"

"Let's go everybody! To battle!" Lind yelled, gaining their attention. He pushed against the door, and it slowly opened, hinges creaking. Once it fully opened, the raid party rushed into the room, spreading into formations they had planned. Kirito blinked. The room seemed very…luxurious. Marble floors, fine wooden pillars, and a lot of precious stones decorating the walls.

"It looks like some giant throne room for kings." He muttered. Kai snorted. "If these jewels could be taken, I have a feeling Argo would drool over all this."

Snapping his attention back to the front, he watched Baran and Nato spawning, seemingly falling from the ceiling and landing in front of them, hammers at the ready. "Here we go!" Lind yelled, and they charged.

Asuna and Kai, being the fastest in the group, reached Nato first. He swung his hammer sideways in a surprising speed, but Asuna jumped and Kai rolled on the ground, the hammer missing them both. Charging in, Asuna activated her thrusting skill **'Linear'** , blowing the boss back a short distance and Kai followed up with a **'Vertical Arc'** , slashing a 'V' on the monster **.** Kirito vaulted over him, hitting the boss on its horn using his charging skill **'Sonic Leap'**. Nato stumbled, and The rest of the group charged. Agil hit the boss once, his axe gleaming green.

"Agil! Back up a bit!"

Leon and his group ran past Agil, all weapons gleaming with sword skills. Lily charged first, her spear thrusting twice into Nato's stomach. Nato swung his hammer downwards, but Sylar was already there, holding his shield over his head. The hammer bounced off the shield and Claire jumped on the shield, jumping towards the monster's face, her dagger sinking deep into its eye. Leaping off, she landed on the floor crouching, before flattening herself on the floor as Riley swung his sword sideways in a **'Horizontal'** , slashing deep into the monster's chest. It roared as its first health bar completely depleted.

"Guys! Switch out! Kirito, Asuna,! Let's go!" I yelled, and Kirito and Asuna rushed forward, me following close behind. Asuna used **'Linear'** again, before sidestepping as Kirito activated **'Crescent Slash'**. I followed up with the 3-hit sword skill **'Sharp Nail'** , unleashing 3 diagonal second health bar depleted as well.

"We're almost done here!" Agil yelled. Kirito glanced over at the groups fighting Baran. Baran was on fourth health bar, only 75% in it. I couldn't tell if we had lost anyone, but it didn't seem so. Lind was more cautious this time. He told the attackers to switch with the tanks routinely, warned everyone whenever it was using 'Numbing Detonation'. A player from League Braves, Nezha, I think his name was. He was a big help against Baran. He was making good use of his chakrams.

I turned back to Nato and jumped. He was holding his hammer high in the air, the weapon glowing yellow. "It's going to use its stunning attack! Everybody move!" Agil and the Rising blades were far enough from the boss for minimal movement to avoid the shock wave, and Asuna's lightning-fast speed saved her, but Kirito didn't have enough time to dodge. Hit by a shock wave, he froze. Nato's eyes flashed and it swung it's hammer sideways at his direction.

My thoughts accelerated as if it had a maxed out AGI stat. I wasn't sure how many hits Kirito could take, but both Nato and Baran could swing its hammer 3 times before freezing. I can't tackle him down, Nato's second strike could crush us while we were on the floor. I can't target its horns, it'd hit Kirito before I manage to reach its horns. Well, that left one option.

Intercept it.

Leaping in front of Kirito, I activated a Martial Arts sword skill, my left fist covered with golden light. I thrust it forward and it collided with the hammer. I held my ground, but I knew I wouldn't be able to last. I wasn't centered in strength, after all. That was Kirito's build. Even so, I managed to hold for 3 seconds, which was enough for Kirito to unfreeze and activate a 'Slant' to parry its attack. The second attack was a downward swing towards us. We jumped away in opposite directions and the hammer hit the ground where we were. The smash created a huge dust cloud, obscuring my vision.

I landed near a pillar. At least, that's all I could see through the dust cloud. I wasn't sure if the boss could see through the cloud, but I know it wouldn't last. It would disappear in 5 seconds, give or take. I knew Nato had one more attack, but I didn't know who it would target.

To answer my question, a golden hammer burst out of the cloud towards my direction (Much to my surprise). Being taken by surprise, I couldn't bring my sword up in time to block the attack, or activate another Martial Arts sword skill. That being said, it shouldn't be hard to guess what happened next. The hammer hit me square in the face, sending me crashing into a pillar and out the other side before bouncing off the wall and onto the floor, my sword flying out of my hand.

"KAI!"

I barely registered my party members' shouts of concern as I sat up slowly, my whole body throbbing in pain. I glanced up at my HP bar, seeing that my health head reduced to the low orange color. I stood up and winced. I was safe, for now. Nato is frozen right now, giving a chance for everyone to attack. I took a glance at it. Agil had ordered everyone to attack Nato while it was frozen. Good. I needed time to recover.

I looked around for my sword, spotting it near some pieces of rubble. I limped over and picked it up, sliding it into its sheath before opening my menu for a health potion. Materializing it in my hand, I popped it open and tipped its contents into my mouth. I watched as my health raised to the green zone. I sighed in relief as most of the pain vanished from my body.

I turned back to Nato and saw that he was activating another 'Numbing Impact'. Sprinting there, I charged up a one-hit Martial Arts Skill, **'Senda'**. My fist glowed a bright red color and I swung it up in an uppercut, meeting the hammer in mid-air. Both skills canceled each other out, and Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of the group attacked in full force. Nato's health bar then depleted to the red zone.

Nato let out a large roar, and its skin turned purple, its eyes glowing red. It then lowered its head and began to charge. "Oh no you don't!" I yelled. I had enough of charging cows. Sprinting towards the nearest pillar, I yelled at everyone to take cover.

Then I ran up the wooden pillar.

My plan was to land on Nato's head when he passed by. It'll stun him temporarily, giving us another chance for us to attack. There were so many things that could go wrong. If I was too late, I'll crumple on the floor and get damaged from the fall. If I'm too early, the same things apply, with an addition of being trampled by Nato.

I did it anyway.

Nato charged forward and at the same time, I jumped from the pillar's surface. Drawing my sword as I fell, I charged a sword skill. Nato's was as fast as a freight train, but I was a good distance away. Seeing Nato get closer, I held my sword skill back, waiting for the correct time to unleash it. I fell fast, but not too fast that I was still above Nato's height. He was 2.5 meters tall, and by charging, he effectively reduced his height by one meter. I was still 7 meters above the ground. I counted the distance between us.

12 meters… 7 meters… 3 meters… Now!

Unleashing the sword skill, I thrust my sword downwards. I accelerated, rivaling Asuna's speed.

And my sword hit Nato's horn in full force.

Nato roared in pain and stood up abruptly, promptly throwing me off. I spun in the air, landing on the floor in a kneeling position.

"Now guys! Attack it while it's frozen!" I yelled, and the whole group came out from behind pillars, weapons at the ready. I was still stuck in place. The sword skill I used had quite a long cool down.

"W-what the hell is that?!"

"This wasn't in the guidebook!"

What?

I unfroze and turned to see the groups attacking Baran and focused at the middle of the room. And saw… A THIRD BOSS?!

What the hell?! Two giant cow bosses were already enough, and now there's a third boss?

God damn it Kayaba, Its only floor 2!

It was still in the process of spawning, but I could already see what it looked like, more or less. It was as big as Baran, but black skinned. He had 6 horns instead of the usual 2. It wore a dark chainmail waist-down, and a silvery platinum crown atop of its head. But what drew my attention the most was its hammer.

Oh great, it's two times bigger than Baran's. One of the developers must really love cows and hammers. Screw you game dev.

I heard Kirito shout an order to attack Nato at full force. I turned in time to see Nato attempting another 'Numbing Impact', only to be blocked by Kirito's **'Horizontal'**. He froze, allowing everyone to attack again. Nato's health was reduced to a sliver, and Kirito finished it off with the Martial Arts skill, **'Gengetsu'**. His foot enveloped in a bright glow and unleashed a somersault kick at Nato's head. With a final roar of agony, Nato exploded into a blue polygons.

"Alright everyone! Let's help the others out! We're not out of the woods just yet!" I yelled, and without waiting, I rushed over to the other groups. The third boss had already fully spawned and was advancing towards them. I glanced up at it and gulped.

Asterius the Taurus King.

He had 6 health bars. 6. Health bars. When I get out of this damn game, I will find whoever who had this idea and kick him in the balls. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And-

Never mind about that right now. Using the confusion, Baran activated **'Numbing Detonation'** , stunning a good amount of players. Luckily, most of them had been far away from the boss, allowing their friends to pull them out of the way. Nevertheless, a few weren't as lucky. Baran swung his hammer at a tank, sending him through a pillar. The man was larger than me, and he had heavy armor, so it impacted the pillar harder than I had. That being said, the pillar fell down on him. The man only had enough time to scream before the pillar slammed into him, flattening him and creating another dust cloud. From that direction, we could distinctly hear the sound of a player's death.

Baran's second swing was in the opposite direction, hitting yet another player and sending him flying in Asterius' direction. Seeing the player, Asterius raised his own hammer and swung it downwards, crushing the player. The player burst into blue polygons. The third player was a damage dealer, and wasn't using good armor. When the hammer hit him, it sent him crashing onto the wall. The player shattered on impact.

Three players down. That was 3 more lives lost to this god damn game.

To beat Asterius, we needed the entire raid party to focus on him. That means Baran had to go down first. "Everyone! Focus on Baran for now! Take him down!" I yelled, and I charged at Baran. He swung his hammer again, but I dodged it slashed at its torso, lowering its health by a little. At first, I was confused on why it affected very little, before realizing that Nezha's chakrams must have made it far more easier for the party to beat Baran.

Baran swung his hammer down again to activate 'Numbing Detonation', and the group backed off. I was to close to Baran to be able to get away, so my mind made another insane plan. A split second before the hammer made contact with the ground, I jumped and grabbed hold of the hammer, pulling myself up. When the hammer slammed to the ground, I landed on the hammer and immediately raced up the handle and up Baran's arm. I activated 'Sonic Leap' and hit Baran's horn. Baran stumbled, and the whole raid group rushed him. With Kirito and Asuna in the group, Baran didn't even get to go berserk before roaring in agony and shattering into polygons. A window popped up in my vision, but dismissed it. I could see that later.

Our victory was short lived, however. Just after Baran was defeated, Asterius showed up behind its remains and unleashed a breath attack.

Jesus, his breath smelled BAD! This thing really needed a dental appointment.

Aaand apparently it causes paralysis too. Screw you, game.

From the looks of it, the whole lot of people on the front had been paralyzed, including Kirito, Asuna, Lind, and Kibaou. Asterius raised his hammer, and was looking at Kibaou and Lind. I swore under my breath. Lind was the leader of this raid, and if he dies, the whole group would probably panic. Neither me nor Kirito could take the leadership, since I'm pretty sure no one would listen to beaters.

And about Kibaou… well, screw him. No one would really care if he died, but he was a human being nonetheless.

I had to move! Struggling against the system, I willed my hand to move towards my pocket, where I stored some healing items.

But Asterius was already bringing his hammer down. I stared in horror as it grew closer and closer to Kibaou and Lind. There was no way that they'd survive. No one can stop that now. No o-

"ROOAAAARRR (Cow translation: MOOOOOOO) (Human Transalation: Gah! What the f-)

Scratch that. Completely forgot about Nezha there. But what struck me as odd was that the chakram didn't hit the horn, but…

"The crown…" I muttered. Then I realized my hand had touched the healing crystal. How did I do that? I stopped trying a few seconds a-

 _'Thank me later'_

Oh right. Him. Never mind then.

"Heal!" the crystal activated, and the paralysis status disappeared. Grabbing a few more, I rushed over to Kirito and Asuna, healing them as well. then I did the same to Lind and Kibaou.

"You guys OK?" I asked.

Lind nodded, while Kibaou just grunted and turned away. Hmph. Bastard. I turned and OH F*** ME!

Asterius had already recovered, swinging his hammer horizontally at us. I grabbed the strap of Lind's Armor and Kibaou's hair (Just because I wanted to) and flung them to the side. They landed near the raid party, and were tended to by their party members. I wasn't as lucky. My whole body was hit by the hammer and I practically flew over everyone's heads, landing with a crash onto the floor. I groaned in pain, and the last thing I could remember seeing was a pair of violet eyes filled with concern and whiskers.

 ***General PoV***

Argo dug through Kai's pocket and found a health potion. She quickly tipped it into his mouth. Checking his HP bar, she sighed in relief to see that his health replenished from a very low red to a reasonable amount of green. Kirito was there a second later. "Is he alright?" he asked hurriedly.

"He's alright. I gave him a health potion." Argo said, and Kirito eyed her suspiciously. "You gave…"

"I took it from his pocket."

"Oh. That makes sense." He nodded in understanding.

"Aren't you supposed to be fighting the boss?"

"Someone named Nezha is holding him off using his chakrams. The rest of us are healing up.

Kai let out a groan before opening his eyes. He sat up, a little dazed. He shook his head and looked back before yelping in surprise. "A-Argo?! What are you doing here?"

Her face was dead serious. "I did a quest in a jungle near the dungeon. It hinted off that there was a third boss," She glanced at Asterius. "That you obviously have met. When I came back to warn you guys about it, the raid party already left. So I came here to warn you."

"Well, you're obviously too late on the warning part." Kai said. "Do you have anything on its attack patterns and how to counter them?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Ok, tell everyone. I'll pay for it later." He turned to the raid party. "Oi, Everyone! Listen up!"

 ***Time Skip***

Asterius roared (or mooed) as its final health bar reached the red zone. Its black skin suddenly seemed like it was burning, like charcoal. Nezha had been repeatedly hitting its crown with his chakrams. Whenever it stumbled, the attackers would rush forward and deal damage. When Asterius recovered, Tanks would switch out and defend against the attacks. Every now and then, Asterius would attempt another breath attack. But with Argo's information, everyone knew when it was coming and how to avoid it.

Once again, Asterius activated 'Numbing Detonation', and everyone backed off. Nezha flung his chakram again, sending the boss off balance. "Now!" Kai yelled, and he rushed forward, Kirito and Asuna by his side. Kirito and Asuna attacked his crown simultaneously, and Kai followed up with his own sword skill. With a final roar, Asterius shattered into a million polygons.

There was a moment of silence. Kibaou meant to open his mouth to say the whole 'beater got the last attack bonus' rant again when Kai raised a hand into the air, gathering everyone's attention. "Anyone need a axe? I don't need it."

Kibaou's mouth dropped. He was giving his last attack bonus away! Again! He cursed inwardly. If this continued, beaters could be accepted. He can't have that. "How the hell do we know it's the LAB? For all we know, you can be giving out a random axe and give it out! Why should we trust a beater like you?!" he yelled. His party members yelled in agreement, and other players gave suspicious looks at Kai too.

Kai just sighed. "Anyone here have the appraisal skill?" a tank from Lind's group stepped forward. "I do." Kai tossed the axe at him. "Identify the stats and tell me if it's fake."

The player took a look. "I-it's stats are real high." He looked at Lind. "It's real."

Kai turned to Argo. "How much do I owe you for the info?"

"5000 Col."

"4000"

"How about 4500?"

"Alright."

He transferred the money, then grasped her shoulder lightly. "Thanks Argo. I'm glad you were here to help."

She grinned he cat-like grin. "It's my job. That's what I do."

Kai nodded and patted her head before turning to the raid party. Well, if no one else has anything to say, I'll be leaving." Opening his menu, he left the party and remade one with Kirito.

Joining Kirito, they both walked to the door leading to the third floor.

"Did you really give him the Last Attack Bonus?" Kirito whispered.

"Yeah. But not the one from Asterius."

"What?"

"I gave him the one from Baran, too. I'm keeping the one from Asterius."

They both opened the door and disappeared to the third floor.

Once they were out of sight, Kirito turned to Kai. "What did you get from Asterius?"

Instead of answering, he opened his menu and equipped it. A pitch black leather jacket adorned with two blood-red stripes from shoulder to forearm materialized under Kai's dark blue cape. It was surprisingly modern-looking, and its colors somehow looked good together with the cape.

"The Pelt of the Fallen King." Kai said, reading its item summary. "It gives you a Strength boost and an increased weight limit."

He turned back to Kirito. "What did you get from Nato?"

He shrugged. "Just a mace I can sell later on."

The two continued walking to the town to activate the portal.

Two floors were down, 98 to go.

 **Okay guys. That was a little bit past 7,7 K words (Not counting the Author's Note. I can't guarantee the next chapter will be longer, but we'll see. Listen, I need your guys opinion for the next chapters. Would you rather:**

 **One. Continue writing the stories as how the progressive novels go before actually moving on to the main story,**

 **Two. Get on to the main story and write about the progressive novels separately,**

 **Three. Screw progressive novels just get on with the Black Cats Thing!**

 **Four. Write about major stuff, like the 1** **st** **milestone boss, where Kai and Kirito part ways with each other for a while (because Kai joined a guild (Before Kirito joined the black cats)), before getting on with the main story.**

 **Your choice! Send me your decision through a PM.**

 **Don't forget to review, tell me unsatisfactory details and I'll fix it, and give me suggestions!**

 **Thanks for reading! I'll see you in the next chapter!**

 **Sincerely,**

 ** _Last Step_**


	9. Poll Announcement and Review answers

**THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER! THIS IS AN ANNOUNCMENT!**

 **I've already counted the polls, and the result is:**

 **Option one: Continue with progressive Novels**

 **Poll count: 4 (AnimeLover (Guest), Gadget Boy (Guest), RedBurningDragon, Gamelord the Hitman)**

 **Option Two: Write a few major stories (Milestone boss, The twin's partings of ways, etc.) before continuing with the actual story, and write the progressive Novels separately in** ** _Dual Swordsmen-Progressive)_**

 **Poll Count: 5 (IDunno (Guest), SharkyX7, bankerrtx01, ToxicGirlfriend, Guest(Guest))**

 **So, I'll do option two. Please don't hate me or stop reading! To say sorry to the ones who chose the first option, some of the main stories will include the progressive chapters. (Meeting the Dark Elves, Argo's quest on the 'Wizard of Oz' inspired one.) the rest I'll put in a separate fanfic.**

 **Also, I have a few reviews to answer.**

 **VergilChan,**

 **Kai stopped using Cobalt Striker after the 5th floor in the beta, while Kirito stopped using his Dark Destroyer in the first floor, already switching it. He upgraded it to the max, therefore making it too powerful to take from the beta inventory, while Kai's Cobalt Striker was only halfway upgraded. Kirito couldn't get the Queen's Knightsword because he didn't get it in the beta. At least not yet.**

 **I'm sorry that you don't like the whole skill thing, but i hope you'll calm down when i say that because they won't get any more skills for a long, long time. Some of the skills the skills are also 'LOCKED' for the time being. If you haven't noticed, Kai's Searching and Familiar Communication skills haven't been used at all, while Kirito's Extended Weight Limit and Parry skills haven't been used. Kirito only used manual parries in the recent fights. Those skills won't be unlocked until they reach a certain point or level, so chill.**

 **Finally, Kai's so called 'dark side' (Guys, please give me a name for this) has some 'Kirito Abriged' Characteristics, though he's more cold and badass, and a somewhat less of a jerk.**

 **Aaron,**

 **Kirito spent his 2000 skill points by spreading it out. So he divided them among his skills, not maxing anything out, but constantly leveling some.**

 **RedBurningDragon,**

 **Sweet title, The Tales of the Twin Blades, but it sounds like it refers more to Kirito's 'Dual Blades' skill. I need something more referring to the twin, not the swords. Also, nice 'abriged' review. Thanks for that.**

 **I've already started writing for both options, but now that I know which option won the poll, I'll focus on it. I'll release it soon! I promise! I just hope school doesn't give me so much damn homework…**

 **See you soon!**

 ** _Last Step_**


	10. Temporary Delay

Right... how do i say this..

I'm currently very busy, so i'm not going to update for a while. i don't know how long i won't be able to update, but not so long i swear!

Please don't give up on me and my story, i'll be back soon.

Thank you to everyone who had followed and liked my story, this short delay will bring more chapters soon!

For those 2 people who had unliked my story thiis long time span, i'm sorry to disappoint.

Thanks guys.

Last Step, Out.


	11. Dissapointing Author's Note and Bad News

**(OOps, sorry i mispelled. not discontinuing, don't worry)**

 **Um, hi.**

 **Uuuh… L-look, I can expla- you know what? Nevermind. Conjure whatever weapon you can think of and kill me.**

 **I'm sorry. This took WAY longer than expected. School was being a dick and already have small tests and quizzes. Not to mention projects and homework. And that in my free time(A.K.A Christmas break etc.) I chose to laze around instead of working on a new chapter. I'm having school tests so I won't be updating frequently, but I'll still be Writing stories. I'm not gonna quit.**

 **That said, for those who have been waiting for the next chapter of** ** _Dual Swordsmen,_** **are panicking or complaining why I haven't finished the next chapter of the story. You can rest assured, I'm not discontinuing it. I have multiple reasons why I haven't.**

 **One, The first paragraph up there.**

 **Two, Some of you had PM or reviewed that I had left out the whole 'Fake Blacksmith Nezha' Part, and were disappointed. As a result, I'm rewriting the ENTIRE chapter, AND working on the eighth chapter on the same time. And that is EXTREMELY mind stressing.**

 **Three, I'm stuck halfway through the chapter cuz I have no idea how to interpret my OC in it (Writer's Block! DAMN!).**

 **So, I'm currently stuck, my mind isn't giving me a basic 'how to interpret the OC in the story', so I have no idea when I'll be able to write this again.**

 **So I'm gonna get some other ideas for now, and put this one on hold. Expect a different story or something from me soon.**

 **NOT DISCONTINUING  
NOT UP FOR ADOPTION  
NOT ABANDONED!**

 **Just put on hold for a while.**

 **Thanks for listening, and see you guys soon!**

 **Sorry for being a (currently) lousy and disappointing storywriter.**

 **Peace out!**

 ** _Last Step_**


	12. A Reason Given (Author's Note)

Before any if you say anything, i have a confession to make.

I am not the Last Step you've read so far. Well, not completely anyway.

The truth is, Last Step consisted of 2 people. Me, the one who gave main ideas, what the story should entail, research, proofreading, etc. My friends know me on other apps or games as Cierium/Rythin.

My partner was the one who wrote up the story, gave it details, and really got the story going by setting personalities, weapons, movesets, preferences, and appearance.

Admittedly, we both write pretty good stories, but i was the lazy one and he was more than willing to spend hours writing chapter after chaptet, each aiming to have more words than the previous one.

And then it all stopped.

We stopped adding more chapters when we promised we wouldn't let this story die.

Why?

Because my partner quit.

He quit the story, he quit school, he quit health.

He quit life.

Gone.

I won't go into who, how, or why. He left a note about wanting to stay anonymous to readers. Something about not spreading morbid news. But this event caused me to lose most of my motivation for writing.

I don't know what i'll do with my stories now. I might continue them, scrap them and make new ones, or keep them up just to honor my partner in some way.

I won't keep this message up for too long. I think i'll take it fown in a week or so. This is just so you guys understand why we stopped.

I'm sorry for not informing you guys sooner. It was hard and i didn't feel like writing much up.

I might start writing again soon, but I'm not sure when I'll be back. I hope you guys can bear with that. At least for a little while more.

I hope you understand.

Thanks,

Last Step (1/2).


	13. News (More AN)

Hi!

I'm back, and I have come to a decision.

I will not quit writing, and I will put something up soon. However, I will most likely not be continuing You're Not Alone and Dual Swordsmen-Link Start!

Why? Hear me out.

As I had said before, those 2 stories were the ones i worked on with my late partner, and the details, personalities, and styles are all his doing. Despite being close friends (like brothers), we have different styles of writing, and different styles of character. I don't think I'll be able to develop his characters the same way he wanted it to turn out. Instead, I'll keep these stories here in his honor. I know it's not much but I think it's something he would want.

Writing has always been his hobby and one of his favorite things to do. He kept and cherished every one of his work. In fact, he left me a flash disk filled with some of his work and - sadly - some unfinished outlines of the next few chapters for these 2 stories. But since he never got around to finishing them, we never posted them.

So! Here's another message I found from him inside a file in the flash disk. Most of the message is personal, but a part of it told me he wanted the story to live on somehow. So, I'll keep this story up here, maybe to continue one day in the future once i get better at writing personalities. But, that doesn't have to stay like this. Another hobby my partner had was reading fanfictions. He absolutely loved reading stories, even if they had horrible grammar or spelling. What mattered the most to him was the feeling that the stories can give. And while he hated stories that ended up in adoption, he loved seeing the stories that were picked up from them, even if they were from different writers with different styles. Unlike me, he loved rewrites or 'Inspired By' stories and he had hoped that one day, his own stories can be an inspiration to new writers in this fanfiction.

That's why he wanted to write some less than common scenes he found in fanfiction. He wanted to try writing a story for every available floor in the Dual Swordsmen Fanfiction. That's why he wanted Naruto to become a girl in the common male Naruto 'Neglected by Parents' fanfic. He was hoping that, if he could be different, even if by a little, it could inspire people to a wider range of different plots and ideas.

I know it was kinda naive, and the probability of it happening was low. But I was hoping that this would explain what I'm going to say next.  
We promised that we wouldn't do this, but since the probability of me continuing these 2 stories are quite low. And even if I do, it isn't going to happen soon. Since he wanted his stories to be an inspiration but he isn't around to do it anymore, I hope, if there is anyone willing or wanting to do it...

 **Please pick up this fanfiction.**

Or in other words, these stories are up for adoption.

Maybe i will continue it someday, but even if I do, anyone who took up this story can still continue theirs.

If you choose to pick up this story, I only have 2 requests.

1\. Please PM me, telling me that you have picked up the story, which one, and the Title.

2\. Please reference _Last Step (A.S.W)_ , at least for the first chapter. Those are the initials of my partner's name, and I want him to receive some credit, at least.  
I will post a new story, but it will take a while. Not only have i been neglecting school a bit and my grades are dropping, I need to think of a new story and what universe to do it as well.

Thank you for listening to what I have to say, and I hope you all have a pleasant day. _(P.S. I might be making a short one-shot in my friend's memory in a few days. It might be a Naruto Fanfic, A SAO Fanfic, Or and Undertale Fanfic. I don't really know yet.)_

Peace Out

Last Step (M.S)


End file.
